This was Jaden’s burden to bear, and bear it he would. No matter the cost.
He left the club, still starving, snarling at the small, blonde female who sidled up to him.
“Leash it, Blackthorn. I’m so not in the mood.”
Jaden stumbled as that smooth male voice washed over him, sweat already popping out on his back. Fuck. What did I do to draw Robin’s attention? “Consider it leashed.”
The amused smile on Robin’s face wasn’t what scared the shit out of him. It was the flash of iridescent green in those guileless brown eyes that did. “Good.”
They walked for a bit, but it was anything but soothing. Finally, Robin spoke. “We have a problem that you’re uniquely situated to deal with.”
He didn’t dare run away screaming like a little girl no matter how badly he wanted to. It just wasn’t in the macho vampire code. “And what would that situation be?” Thank God his voice was steady. He didn’t think he could show his face at the next vampire convention if he acted like a total wuss.
Robin eyed him sideways. It didn’t matter that the form Robin walked in was a full head shorter than Jaden’s, he still wanted to crap his pants. “A Malmayne situation.”
Jaden stopped. No fucking way. “Sorry, you’ll have to find someone else. Someone a little less prejudiced.”
Robin turned and faced him. “Look, I have an idea how you feel.” Those cupid’s bow lips looked weird wrapped around the deep voice of the Hob, but there you go. The man was a strange motherfucker. “If the two people I wanted most in the world wound up mated to each other, leaving me out in the cold, I’d be pretty pissed too.”
Jaden ignored the pity in Robin’s expression and focused on the cold determination. He couldn’t deal with the fact that apparently Robin understood why he refused to return home.
“But there are…rumors that Kaitlynn was involved in more than just wanting Leo Dunne to herself. The Malmayne name is being linked to some dark doings.”
Jaden shivered. “Duncan would never…” Not in a million years would Duncan ally himself or his clan with the Black Court. Only something of that magnitude would draw the personal attention of the Hob.
“No, we don’t believe Duncan is. But there are other factions in the Malmayne clan who apparently are.”
Oh, hell no. If Duncan had any clue that the Malmaynes were inching toward the Black he’d flip his fucking lid and go after whoever was stupid enough to endanger them all. Shit. The noble asshole would get himself killed. The same sense of noblesse oblige that sent Duncan into that alley after a raggedy vampire would send him riding off in his white limo, ready to take on the world. All hail Duncan Do-Right. “My job?” He could already tell this was not going to end well.
Robin smiled. Jaden shivered. “Find out who it is and deal with them, however you see fit.” Robin reached up and patted his cheek, the tips of his long, black nails startlingly cold in contrast to the warmth of his palm. “I trust your judgment.”
Jaden’s head drooped. He rubbed his forehead, willing the ache away. The Hob had just given him carte blanche on an assassination job. It wasn’t the first one he’d been assigned since becoming a Blade, but it was the first one where he’d have to go after a loved one’s family.
Well, looks like I’m well and truly fucked. Just not the way I’d hoped to be.
When he looked back up, Robin was gone.
Akane Russo looked over at the tiny, blonde female who’d just sat next to her. She recognized that scent. It was one every dragon was taught from birth. “Sir.”
Those full, pouty lips quirked up in a smile. “We have a situation.”
Akane nodded, pretending that deep, masculine voice was totally natural coming from those very feminine lips. “Where to?”
“The Malmayne estate in Nebraska.”
“On my way.” She dropped the glass to the top of the bar and started toward the door.
“Don’t you want to know the assignment?”
Akane smiled, not even bothering to turn around. They could hear each other just fine, despite the sea of sweaty humanity. The star in the center of her iris went wide, letting her see what she needed to. She already had a clue what was going on with her erstwhile partner. “Jade needs me.” She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and sniffed, getting a whiff of the Hob’s rich, earthy scent again, a hint of which she’d recently caught on someone else. “Are you going to tell him or let him figure it out on his own?”
“What would be the fun in telling him?”
“That’s mean.” There was no answer; the Hob had already left. “He certainly knows how to make an exit.” She shook her head and made her way to her convertible. She had a plane to catch and a vampire to watch over.
She just hoped Robin knew what he was doing.
Moira watched Duncan pace the length of the library and back again. What was wrong with her? The better question might be, what is wrong with him? Weren’t they mated? Hadn’t he Claimed her, taken her to his home? Told her he cared for her? So why? Why hadn’t he touched her? Beyond a few kisses and some increasingly sad smiles, he was so…distant. Why did he pace night after night, mourning something he couldn’t explain?
Why did she feel like mourning?
If it wasn’t for the fact that she and Duncan were destined mates she would have left by now, her heart and pride in tatters. But Aileen had told her to be patient, that something was desperately wrong. It was up to Moira, as Duncan’s future wife, to find out what that something was and rectify it. So far, Moira hadn’t been able to figure out anything other than Duncan was steadily growing worse.
She was tired, oh so tired. Duncan’s depression dragged at her, and not even the comfort of her mother could ease the pain. She accepted that Duncan wanted her, needed her. He’d made it clear the one time she, in desperation, offered to leave him alone. She hadn’t meant forever, she’d meant just for a few days, but the desolation in his eyes had made her stay. She’d fallen asleep in his arms, calming him, soothing him. Letting him know that she was there for him, whether he wanted her or not. But the Binding and the Vow remained undone, and without that connection Moira wasn’t certain how much more she could take before she broke. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Duncan needed her, that the Claiming wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t destined to be together. But something held them both back from taking the final steps that would bind them together forever. If it hadn’t, she would have gotten him drunk and taken care of the matter herself.
Something tugged at both their hearts, and she was desperately afraid of what it might be. Not even the cheerful Christmas decorations she’d roped the entire household into putting up brightened her mood, and she loved watching Christmas lights twinkle at night. The human holidays were her favorite time of year, but she just couldn’t get into the spirit of it.
The hell with this. Whatever was bothering Duncan, he refused to discuss it. He was heartbroken every night, reaching for something that was never there. No. Not something. Someone. She wished with all her heart that someone was her.
Don’t lie to yourself, Moira. Not all your heart, girl.
She winced, hoping Duncan hadn’t noticed. No matter how badly she wanted to forget that night, Jaden Blackthorn refused to leave her mind, or her heart. And that was just wrong when her fated mate paced not ten feet away from her.
It would have been so easy for Jaden to hurt her beyond knocking her out. He could have sipped her blood without creating the bond, but he had created it. He’d used that bond to reassure her when she was frightened by Ruby’s kidnapping and Leo’s fight with Kaitlynn. She’d felt his pain as the rowan stake pierced his back, nearly killing him.
The flare of agony as Duncan Claimed her had been intense before Jaden cut her off cold. She still wondered at it, wondered if that agony had been for her or for Duncan. She bit her lip. That wondering had begun taking her down a path she’d never thought was possible before.
Was it?
She took a deep breath and allowed the possibility to sink in that what she was thinking might be fact rather than fantasy.
She didn’t expect much resistance from her family if she was right. They understood now that Jaden had been working all along to slow Kaitlynn down. It had been a surprise to her family, but Duncan had known. Duncan trusted Jaden more than anyone in the world except her. That trust Duncan showed her reassured her when nothing else could. If he trusted her enough to let her in, to let her feel his grief and hold him close when no one else could go near him without getting their heads bitten off, then he trusted her enough to fix whatever it was that had gone so wrong between them.
She clenched her jaw and nodded to herself. It was about damn time she got started. If her hunch was correct, she’d need to have a nice, long talk with her intended. Soon.
She shook her head and stood up, feeling like she was heading into battle with blinders on.
“Moira?” Duncan stood as well, his concerned gaze tracking her every move.
She tried to smile, she really did, but she just couldn’t manage it. Her own depression was nearly overwhelming. She walked out of the room and climbed the stairs to the bedroom she shared with Duncan. She took her cell phone out of her pocket, sat at the vanity Duncan had installed for her, and did the only thing she could think of.
Moira called her mother.
Duncan watched Moira leave the room. She was too hurt to even give him a real attempt at a smile, but what could he do? He’d been ripped in two. One half sat upstairs in his bedroom, doing the gods only knew what. Possibly making preparations to leave him, not that he didn’t deserve it.
The other… Ah, the other…
How had this happened? How could he have known that claiming his heart would tear out his soul? Oh, he was coming to love Moira. How could he not? She did everything she could think of to ease the unbearable melancholy that had slowly begun to rip him apart since leaving the Dunne farm. Other women would have ripped into him, or tried to hurt him even more for his seeming indifference, but not Moira. Moira almost seemed to understand what he was going through and tried her best to make it better even though he didn’t understand it himself. But nothing she did could completely erase the ache of Jaden’s absence.
Nothing anyone did could, and it was slowly tearing him apart.
He’d called to Jaden through their bond, but Jaden hadn’t answered, not in all the long weeks he’d been gone. Jaden was off somewhere in Nevada, but Duncan didn’t get what Jaden was doing there. Was he hurt? Was that why he didn’t answer? Why couldn’t Duncan let this go long enough to complete the bond with Moira? He’d kissed her, begun Claiming her, but he had yet to make love to her and complete the Claiming. Without that, the Bonding and the Vow would be useless no matter how many times he uttered the words.
He scrubbed his face with the palms of his hands. Was it possible that, after four hundred years waiting, wishing for his mate, he was finally losing his mind? Why couldn’t he bring himself to Claim her?
To top it all off, there were restless members of the clan who were unhappy with his choice of mate, kin who thought that by bonding with Moira he’d somehow diluted the Malmayne bloodline. There were a few who had come to congratulate him on his mating, but that was the problem, wasn’t it? Instead of paying homage to the clan leader’s wife, the majority of the Malmaynes had stayed away, showing their disapproval in the only way open to them that wouldn’t result in serious reprisals.
Little did they know. Jaden would…
That knife blade of sorrow was becoming all too familiar. Because Jaden wouldn’t.
Jaden wasn’t here.
“Mrow.”
Duncan looked down at the only real link he had left to Jaden. “Hey, Furball.” He picked up the calico cat, smiling as he petted her. He’d have to see to it that she bred soon. He couldn’t imagine not having one of Jezebel’s grandchildren living with them. The stray Duncan had rescued all those years ago had lived a long and comfortable life. Between Jaden and Duncan they’d raised generations of Jezebel’s descendants.
Duncan stared at the door Moira had disappeared through. What in hell he was going to do? For the first time in a very long time he didn’t know the answer. The loss of Jaden was an open wound, pouring out his heart’s blood, leaving him empty and cold. But Moira… Moira stemmed the tide, keeping the wound from being lethal. If Jaden had left him completely alone Duncan would have bled out long since.
He blinked as Ian entered the room without knocking. “My lord, there’s someone to see you.”
The brownie wouldn’t bother him without some justification, especially after he’d given orders not to be disturbed. “Who?”
“Henri Malmayne, my lord.”
Duncan refrained from rolling his eyes. “Show him in.”
The butler nodded and regally turned toward the door.
“Ian?”
The butler turned back. “Yes, my lord?”
“No refreshments. I don’t plan on this taking long.”
Ian’s expression remained blank, but his eyes danced. “Yes, my lord.” Henri was a pompous prick when he visited, treating the brownie butler with barely leashed contempt. Under his father’s rule there had been nothing Duncan could do about it. Now that Cullen was dead, however, he’d rectify that attitude in all of his Malmayne relatives. As far as Duncan was concerned Ian was family, and that was that.
Soon enough Henri was shown into the library. Duncan had moved to sit behind the massive, ornate desk, leaving his cousin to approach while he remained seated. It was a small display of dominance that would have tickled both Jaden and Moira if they’d been in the room with him. He could even picture it: Jaden leaning against the edge of the desk, all edgy defiance, Moira next to him, her green eyes ablaze with curiosity and that unique fire that was all her own. He shook the vision away when Henri reached the desk. “Cousin.”
“Duncan.” Henri smiled, but his gray eyes, so much like Duncan’s own, remained chilled.
Duncan waited.
Henri’s smile dimmed. His eyes narrowed, the smile becoming sharper. “My lord.”
Duncan nodded. “Have a seat, Henri.” He waited until Henri was seated, desperately wishing his mate and best friend were here. “What seems to be the problem?”
“The family is becoming restless. You know this. They want to see the Dunnes punished for their destruction of Cullen and Kaitlynn and are wondering why nothing has yet been done.”
Duncan held on to his temper by a thin thread. This was the third visit from Henri, the third demand that the Dunnes pay a debt they hadn’t incurred. The fault lay solely on the shoulders of Cullen and Kaitlynn, but most of the Malmaynes refused to see that. Their spokesman, Henri, made sure Duncan was aware of it, too.
Now he was going to lay down his final answer in a way not even Henri could misconstrue. “There will be no debt paid by the Dunnes.” The Malmaynes, on the other hand, had only just begun to pay for the crimes committed by Kaitlynn.
He saw Henri’s teeth clench behind that smile, a quick flexing of his jaw muscles that betrayed him. “The Dunnes killed our lord, your father. Duncan, honor must be satisfied.”
“Honor has been satisfied, Henri.” He leaned back and began ticking off on his fingers. “Kaitlynn and Cullen conspired to kidnap Shane Dunne. They kidnapped and tortured Ruby Holloway, the wife of Leo Dunne. Kaitlynn, not Leo, killed my father.”
“And who killed Kaitlynn?”
Ah, there was the sticking point, wasn’t it? “I did.”
“You mean your pet vampire did.”
It was Duncan’s turn to unclench his jaw. Jaden didn’t deserve the way the rest of the clan treated him. He never had. “Under my direct orders.”
Henri waved
his hand. “Still, Kaitlynn’s death was a direct result of the Dunne’s refusal to abide by the marriage contract. If Leo Dunne had simply done his duty none of this would have happened.”
Duncan wasn’t so sure of that. Leo had made it clear he wasn’t interested in fulfilling the contract when first approached. Duncan had the feeling that by the time they’d approached Leo he’d already been ensnared by his pretty little Ruby, and no amount of persuasion would have been able to force his hand. “Shane Dunne might have been willing to fulfill the contract, if approached correctly.” Duncan held up a hand to stall his cousin’s rejoinder. It was well known that the hybrid was unacceptable to the bluebloods of the family. That unusual power of his made him less in the eyes of the Sidhe, something Duncan could not understand. The power to create objects out of thin air? How could someone not prize that? “However, the point is moot, as I have fulfilled the full terms of the contract.”
Not even Henri had the balls to sneer in Duncan’s face over Moira. “Still—”
“Enough.” Duncan’s power rolled through that one softly spoken word. He allowed his eyes to sparkle with silver. Silver motes of light danced in the air as he allowed his human Seeming to drop, reinforcing his command, turning him into a being made if silver and gold. “The Malmaynes and the Dunnes have no quarrel. That is my final word on the affair.” He stood, noting that Henri hesitated before following him. He wrapped his human Seeming around himself once more and allowed the motes of light to die out. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
Henri bowed, but not before Duncan caught the defiance in the man’s eyes. “My lord.” He turned on his heel and strode out of the library without a backwards glance, his dissatisfaction in every line of his body.
Duncan waited until Henri was out of sight before slowly sinking back into his chair. Fuck, he needed Jaden. He buried his head in his hands and sent out a psychic tendril, hoping against hope that this time Jaden would answer.
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