Never More

by Dana Marie Bell

  From the clacking sound Raven made, they had.

  “Yeah. He was in the nightclub with them.” Tracing the signal through its electronic signals wasn’t hard for a gremlin of Red’s power. His chair creaked as his increased bulk tilted backward. “Good news is, his ass stayed put while he sent those dead—I assume dead—redcaps after them.”

  “Track his movements. Robin’s mate may be in danger.”

  “Again?” Red switched back to Liam, his voice returning to its normal tenor. “Damn it. I lost a bet with Howard. I said it would take two more days before she got into trouble.”

  Raven barked out a laugh before cutting the connection.

  “Love you too, cupcake.” Liam was used to the way the other Blades would cut his connection to them. He was rarely in the field the way they were, and often cutting him off was to save their own asses, or his. The times he did go into the field…

  Well. None could track Big Red if he didn’t want them too.

  “Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work I go,” he sang softly as he began tracing the locations of the Black Court heavies tracking Raven into Soybean Land.

  And if he happened to find them on their cell phones?

  Zap. One less bug to worry about.

  Chapter Four

  Duncan and Jaden had taken one look at Aileen Dunne’s face and decided they really needed to visit Shane in his workroom. They’d left the women alone to face the wrath of Leo’s tiny, adorable mother, running so quickly for Shane’s converted silo they actually kicked up dust. Robin and Michaela laughed as they watched, but the laughter died as Aileen took hold of Michaela’s arm and, ignoring Robin’s sudden growl, put her with the other women. Aileen had ushered the women inside without a word, mom-guilt hanging heavy in the air. She led them into the kitchen silently, lining them up execution-style.

  “Well, well, well.” Aileen tapped her wooden spoon in her hand with all the precise, cool contempt of an army general facing a group of soldiers who’d fucked up their mission beyond all hope. “Did you enjoy your evening out, ladies?”

  Sean Dunne coughed, earning a glare from the petite redhead and matriarch of the clan. “I said nothing, my love.”

  “Good.” That piercing glare returned to the people who’d earned her ire, namely Moira, Ruby and Amanda. Amanda tried not to squirm too much. “Now. You wound up in jail, an hour away from home—” Aileen held up the spoon when Moira tried to speak up, “—yes, I know you don’t live here anymore. That’s not the point.” The spoon hammered down on the kitchen table and Moira jumped at least a foot. “The point is,” Aileen continued in a sweetly reasonable tone, “you, Michaela, are still learning. You can’t defend yourself yet.”

  Michaela nodded with wide-eyed silence. If she was as terrified as Ruby she was doing a good job of hiding it. If anything, she seemed almost amused.

  “Ruby.”

  Ruby whimpered in fear and tried to duck behind Amanda.

  “You are pregnant. You shouldn’t be anywhere near alcohol, let alone jail, while carrying my grandchild.”

  “Yes’m.”

  Ruby ducked even further, her chin almost on Amanda’s butt, when Aileen frowned.

  “Moira,” Aileen cooed, her brow smoothing out once more.

  “Ma,” Moira whined.

  “How long have you lived in this area?”

  Moira darted a glance toward Amanda. “Most of my life.”

  “All of your life. And how many times have you been arrested?”

  “Never.” Moira grinned cheekily at Aileen. “The charges were—”

  “Moira.” The spoon hit the table again.

  “Once.” Moira’s shoulders slumped.

  “And just why did you wind up there, hmm?” Tap tap tap went the spoon on the table.

  Amanda stumbled forward from Ruby’s push just as Michaela and Moira pointed at her. “She did it!”

  Amanda bit her lip to keep from laughing. “It was worth it.”

  Aileen’s eyes flitted over her, her expression neutral. “Was it?”

  Amanda crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. No one steals from my friends.”

  Aileen’s gaze softened slightly. “Oh?”

  “Someone tried to snatch my purse.” Ruby actually straightened up. “Amanda saw it and tried to stop her.”

  “But the bouncers thought Amanda was the one who started it,” Michaela added.

  “She kind of did.” Moira shrugged when Amanda rolled her eyes. “You did throw the first punch, after all.”

  “I did not!” Amanda scowled at Moira. “That makeup tutorial dropout did.”

  “She wasn’t that bad,” Ruby laughed.

  “Please.” Amanda rolled her eyes. “No wonder blush seeps out of her pores like that. She probably mainlines Sephora.”

  Aileen huffed, the spoon still tapping on the table. “I can’t let you out of my sight, can I?”

  Amanda pointed to her chest. “Me? I’m just the defender of the innocent.”

  That earned another cough from Sean, who wisely ducked out of the room just before Aileen’s gaze fell on him again.

  “You—” the spoon lashed out, stopping just short of Moira’s nose, “—tell your mates to come and collect you.”

  “But, Ma—”

  “Now.”

  Moira grumbled and left the room.

  “You—” the spoon tapped Michaela on the shoulder, “—find Robin.”

  “Aye aye!” Michaela saluted and walked much more calmly toward the front of the house where no doubt Robin still waited for her.

  “Ruby.”

  Ruby clung to Amanda’s arm like she was waiting for a death sentence.

  “Do you have your purse?”

  “Yes’m.”

  Aileen nodded sharply. “Good. Take it and go upstairs. Leo would like a word with you.”

  Ruby’s eyes went wide. “Aw, crap.”

  Aileen smiled, the expression utterly evil. “Indeed.”

  Ruby darted a quick glance at Amanda before abandoning her to Aileen’s tender mercies.

  Amanda sighed and sat at the kitchen table. “You’re hiding something from me.”

  Aileen looked startled for a moment before dropping the spoon on the table. “What makes you say that?” She turned her back on Amanda and began making tea.

  “The way you all look away from me when discussing things, like the fact that Michaela can’t fight.”

  “Michaela has no business fighting anyone.” Aileen slammed a cabinet shut, obviously upset.

  “All right.” Apparently Aileen Dunne bought into the stereotype that blondes couldn’t find the eleven when dialing 9-1-1. “How about the fact that Michaela’s eyes change color whenever she’s upset?” They’d gone from a lovely brown to gold more than once during the night. And not gold as in light brown, either. They’d been shinier than the 24-karat chain Amanda wore around her wrist.

  “Did they?” Aileen seemed to shimmer for a second before handing Amanda her tea. “Are you sure about that?”

  Amanda frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Well.” Aileen settled down with her own cup of tea and handed Amanda a homemade sugar cookie. “It was more than likely the light shining in her eyes. You were in a nightclub, yes?”

  “I…suppose.” The more Amanda thought about it the more she realized she must have been seeing things. No one had metallic eye colors. That was impossible. “That must have been it.”

  “What else have you been worried about, dear?” Aileen patted her hand.

  “How Jaden has fangs.” Amanda remembered the flash of white fang just before Jaden kissed the side of Duncan’s neck. She’d ducked back out of the room before they saw her, both startled and not wanting to intrude on an intimate
moment between the two.

  “Fangs?” Aileen’s tinkling laughter warmed her, invited her to share in the joke.

  She blinked and laughed. “Was he playing some kind of game with Duncan?”

  “Yes, I believe so. It’s something of an inside joke between them.”

  “Is Moira in on it?” Amanda smiled, thinking of the three of them. They seemed right somehow, like a triangle. It couldn’t exist without three.

  “Oh, yes. She finds it highly amusing.” Aileen shook her head. “Can I ease your mind on anything else?”

  Amanda shook her head. “Nope, I think that’s it.”

  The back door flew open and Raven sauntered into Aileen Dunne’s cheerful kitchen. His thick-soled motorcycle boots squeaked on the tile as he skidded to a halt. “Um. Hi.”

  Amanda blinked innocently. Something about the man made her want to tease him unmercifully. “Who are you again?”

  Goth-boy looked annoyed before shooting her a wicked grin. “Raven Goodfellow.” He held out his hand. “And you’re Amanda Pierson, Ruby’s friend.”

  “Yup.” Mesmerized by his sapphire eyes, she gave him what he wanted, shuddering as he kissed her palm. She never realized how badly she needed simple touch until he let her go. Her palm tingled as she cradled it to her chest.

  “You have beautiful eyes.” He reached out again and cupped her cheek, his smile so soft for a moment the tough image he exuded faded away. “I’d like to paint you someday.”

  “You’re an artist?” That explained a lot.

  He nodded. “Not in glass, like Shane. I work in pencil, watercolor and oil.”

  “That’s awesome.” Amanda had a lot of respect for artists. She couldn’t draw a stick figure, but she could design the theme for a party from three words written on a damp napkin by a drunken hippo.

  And she had.

  “Raven tilted his head, the thick band of red in his nearly black hair hiding his left eye. He studied her face as if he was memorizing every inch of it. “You would be my greatest work.”

  “That’s not creepy at all,” Amanda murmured. No way was she letting this guy know he was getting to her.

  His fingers lingered on her skin as he pulled away. “You’ll have to allow me to paint you.”

  Amanda put on her most mindless expression. “It puts the lotion in the basket.”

  Raven threw his head back and laughed. The sound was deep, rich, with just the right edge of darkness to it to send Amanda’s heart fluttering like a stupid teenage girl’s. “We’re going to get along very well.” He lifted her chin and caressed her lips with his fingertips. His eyes focused on her lips, his blue eyes darkening. “Very well.”

  Amanda stood, removing herself from this dangerous man’s space. Geez, it was like he had a fuck-me-now aura she could barely resist. What the hell was wrong with her? She’d wanted men before, had slept with a few, but never like this. Never so badly her hands were shaking just because he spoke. She held up her hands when he moved to follow her. “Sit. Stay. Good goth-boy.”

  The memory of that lethal grin seemed to follow her all the way to bed, where it then dominated all of her dreams.

  Raven had walked into Aileen Dunne’s kitchen and nearly come unglued.

  The Sidhe was rolling Amanda’s mind, and he didn’t like that one little bit.

  If Raven was right, the roiling feelings of possession and protectiveness could only mean one thing. Amanda Pierson was his other half, the woman meant to be his. His truebond.

  It seemed the Goodfellow luck was in full swing, because he’d found the woman of his dreams right in the middle of an assassination attempt on his life.

  It didn’t get any better than this.

  Not.

  Raven watched Amanda leave the kitchen, her stride composed, her expression serene. When she was gone he settled at the kitchen table to warn away the matriarch of the Dunne clan. “Don’t do that again.”

  “I have no choice, and you know it.” Aileen Dunne set a cup of tea at his elbow. “It’s better for her. Safer.” She ruffled his hair, and some of his ire diminished. Aileen made it difficult to be angry with her. She mothered everyone who came within her sphere of influence. “Believe me, I wish I could tell her who, and what, we are. She’s Ruby’s best friend, the sister of her heart. I’d protect her just as I do Ruby. And the best way to protect her is to keep her ignorant.”

  Raven sipped the tea, smiling at the taste of cinnamon and apple. It was so…homey. In her own subtle way, Aileen did her best to make it clear that she accepted Raven into her home just as much as she did Robin. “There’s something about Amanda that draws me to her.”

  “Oh?” Aileen’s tone was far less subtle than her tea. She sat across the table from him and reclaimed her own tea cup. “How so?”

  Raven shrugged, uncertain how to explain himself and oddly embarrassed by the whole thing. “I saw her for the first time on Red’s monitors. She was on the flight here, reading a book, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Then, when I saw her heading out tonight, I just wanted to stop her and…” No way could he tell Aileen about the caveman feelings he’d had.

  She tilted her head, ignoring the way his words had trailed off. “Do you think she could be your bondmate?”

  Bondmate. Raven rolled the word around in his head, tested the weight of it against the strange attraction he had for a woman so completely different from the one he’d thought he loved.

  Amanda had already proven she wasn’t like Michaela. Where Michaela was all bubbling warmth and good cheer, Amanda was a risk-taker. She’d had no hesitation in taking on someone who’d wronged her friend, and she’d refused to back down when Aileen had gone hardcore Mom on her. And the way she’d bantered back with him, refusing the desire they both felt? Oh, yes. That had been a serious turn-on.

  Her voice both soothed and inflamed him. Her scent filled him with a hunger he’d long thought dead to him. The forced matings with Titannia had driven him to the edge of insanity. Until he met Michaela, he’d thought his cock dead. It had twitched for the nurse, showed an interest he’d thanked the gods for, but it hadn’t gone full-mast until a certain blonde had appeared on Liam’s screen reading about cowboys.

  Amanda’s gaze and daring smile had brought life back to his libido, and he’d barely met her. He wanted to bathe in her scent and bring her the shiniest toys he could find to make her smile.

  Fuck. He wanted to goddamn nest, and if that wasn’t enough to tell him the truth then nothing ever would be.

  Amanda was his truebond. She had to be. There was no other explanation.

  Was there?

  Raven had never thought to find himself blessed with a truebond. If what Aileen was hinting at was true, if Amanda really was his truebond, then Raven had more to be thankful for than simply his cock getting hard.

  “How do I know?” He sipped the tea, unable to meet her gaze. For some reason he felt both embarrassed and cautiously optimistic.

  “Hmm.” Aileen sat back, a small, nostalgic smile crossing her face. “When I met Sean, all I could see was him. When I caught his scent, I wanted it to become a part of mine so I could smell him whenever I wanted. And his laugh, oh, his laugh.” Aileen sighed happily. “Nothing could make the sun shine brighter than Sean Dunne’s laugh. The first time we kissed and I tasted him I knew. He was my truebond, the only one in the world who could complete me.”

  Even in the Black Court they’d heard of the Malmayne-Joloun non-mating. Hell, because Aileen had followed her truebond and refused to bond with Duncan Malmayne, the entire Malmayne clan wound up falling to the Black. For the Black Court it was the coup of the century. Titannia had been ecstatic. She’d plucked one of the strongest White Court clans right out of Gloriana’s fingers, and she’d barely had to lift one of her own.

  Of course, the fact that Duncan had upheld the marriage contract
and truebonded with Moira Dunne, the direct descendent of Aileen, hadn’t stopped the Malmaynes’ fall. Instead it had been the tipping point. Leo, the closest to true-blooded Sidhe of Aileen’s children, truebonded with a human, Ruby, and refused to set her aside for a Malmayne. Shane, the eldest and the only one to be a true hybrid of both his Sidhe and leprechaun parents, had truebonded with another hybrid, Akane Russo. Of course, the Malmaynes hadn’t wanted someone of mixed blood in their precious bloodline, so Shane had never been a contender for mate.

  They’d wanted Leo, and no other. They’d even threatened Ruby, kidnapping and torturing her and earning Leo’s wrath. He’d proven himself a true Sidhe lord that day, reclaiming what was his by force.

  Raven had to respect that about the man.

  “So, what you’re saying is, if I kiss her I’ll know?”

  Aileen shook her head. “I’m not certain. You’re not Sidhe, but you are part sylph. What are the bonding rituals of the sylph?”

  Raven laughed. “Like I would know. My mother wasn’t allowed to teach me anything about my sylph heritage. Everything I know, I learned on my own.”

  “Then speak with Robin. He might be able to help.” Aileen sipped her tea, humming in contentment. “He, too, thought he couldn’t form a truebond until he met Michaela.”

  “But he did.” Michaela and Robin were two halves of a whole. Raven could no longer imagine one without the other. It had stung at first, but how could he hate the man who’d freed him and claimed him as his own?

  “And his blood runs through you.” Aileen tipped her cup to him. “I see no reason why you can’t truebond.”

  “And if I’m wrong? If Amanda isn’t my bondmate, just some hot chick I’d like to bone?”

  Aileen gave him a look that even children like him, who’d grown up with a mother under tremendous pressure, understood. She wasn’t happy with him in the least. “Then you see where it takes you. No one says you have to be celibate while looking for your bondmate, and if Amanda is one you want, you see if she’s agreeable.”

  “And if she is my bondmate?” Because that might actually be worse. As much as he longed for a bond like the one Robin had with Michaela, or Leo with Ruby, he also feared it. Titannia would kill her without a second thought just to punish Raven. “How do I keep her safe?”