Delaney crumpled over Lucan’s chest while Roark slowly withdrew. Her shoulders slumped in relief. Lucan laid her on her back and kissed her.
“You are a goddess,” he murmured.
Wolf sat beside her, grinning. “Not just any goddess. Our goddess.”
“I’m still catching my breath,” Roark said, but laughed to see his cock twitching from the aftershocks. “Let’s just say you’re the one who makes the angels weep with envy.”
Chapter Nine
From the concealment of a rock, Jaden sat and watched in mute misery. His cock ached from the strain of being hard. But his heart ached just as much. He put a hand over his chest, as though massaging out the possessiveness were possible. Anger burned there too, but not for Delaney. She’d merely done what he’d asked her to do. He couldn’t be angry with Roark, Wolf or Lucan. They too had merely followed orders.
No, he hated Fate. Fate was a merciless bitch. Or, as far as he knew, maybe this was karmic retribution for all the girlfriends he’d smuggled into the house while Delaney studied, before he admitted to himself that he loved her. Whatever it was, he hated it. Of everyone here, and he included Delaney in the equation, he was the one making the greatest sacrifice.
His cock throbbed, refusing to give up. If he weren’t so stubborn, he would have given it a quick pull and ended his suffering. Pride forbade it. Plus, he was doing such a fine job of feeling sorry for himself. Why ruin a good thing?
With a sigh of disgust, he scrubbed his eyes with the palm of each hand. Images of Delaney writhing in ecstasy beneath three virile vampires oozed through his brain. He’d seen the look of bliss on Lucan’s face when he entered her, the predatory focus of Roark when he violated her inner sanctum. Jaden even begrudged Wolf his joy in flooding her mouth in come.
He could tell by the way they were smiling how delighted they were with her beauty and responsiveness. And if he had any sense at all, he would turn around right now and head back to the temple. But he forced himself to stay and deal with his less-than-noble feelings. He had to. He owed it to Delaney, he owed it to their relationship, and yes, he owed it to himself. Delaney wasn’t cheating. She was fulfilling her destiny.
Less heartsore but still pissed, Jaden stood up with his obvious hard-on and pulled off his shirt. The heat was getting worse. Moreover, the cold air from the melting snow had mixed with the warmer air below, creating a low cover of fog that made everything sticky. Peering into the darkness, he caught sight of other fast-moving clouds, despite the absence of wind. Unlike fog, these clouds weren’t gray at all, they were…
Supernatural.
Jaden broke out in a run up the hill. Approaching from the opposite direction, the mass headed straight for Delaney. She’d stood up to finish getting dressed, laughing, oblivious to the danger. None of the men saw it either. They were clearly too besotted to notice.
“Run!” Jaden shouted.
Startled, Delaney looked everywhere but up. The men closed ranks around her. But now they were all sitting ducks. Jaden’s heart boomed. He closed the distance between him and Delaney. “Above you!” he cried.
There was a sharp crack. A bolt of lightning snaked to the ground. The cloud boiled not thirty feet above their heads. A second strike, a third. One of the tents burst into flame.
Jaden reached her and tried to sweep her into his arms. “I can run,” she said.
They lit out, Lucan and Roark flanking her, Wolf behind. Neon arteries of fire zapped the earth around them. Jaden could smell ozone from the electricity. One tongue of lightning found its way between him and Delaney. It lit her up like a store window, her dark eyes wide with terror. She ran with the speed and agility of a gazelle, but could they make it back to the temple? If anything happened to Delaney, he would spend the rest of his life making sure Val paid for it. Jaden never knew he could hate his own mother this much.
He could see the temple looming up ahead. They were so close. If he thought for one minute that splitting up would have drawn fire away from Delaney, he would have done it without hesitation. The men too. They were ready to lay down their lives for her. But staying with her was the best they could do.
Delaney raced over the last few yards. Jaden could see the stone eye above the portal. With a deafening roar, lighting cracked the air in front of it. Delaney screamed.
“Help me cover her!” Jaden shouted. Together, they charged the portal, using their bodies to shield her just as a second blast arced down after the first.
Jaden carried her inside. Even here, he could smell the burnt-metal smell of the lightning. Clearly shaken, Delaney clung to him, her cheek pressed to his shoulder, but in that single gesture of trust, she did more to heal his heart than a thousand words.
Roark, panting like everyone else, gave him a manly thump on the back. “I take it your mother won’t be coming to the ceremony.”
* * *
Fury radiated from Jaden. Clasped in his arms, Delaney could feel his body vibrating with it. What just happened? Clearly, Val just made a fearsome effort to kill her, but hadn’t she known an electrical storm might kill Jaden too?
He carried her up the stairs two at a time. The wall torches flickered with their eerie, mystical fire. Even with her face buried against his chest, Delaney could tell they were going to her bedchamber. The stairway reeked of the catacomb smells of mold and damp. But when Jaden set her down next to the bed, she could see the true depth of his distress. He ran his hands over her body, checking for cuts and burns. She knew better than to tell him she was all right. Jaden needed to make sure of that himself.
He gathered her close. She breathed the rich masculine fragrance of him, the one that reminded her of pipe tobacco, and closed her eyes. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, her legs didn’t feel as though they could support her any longer. Not only were they shaking from the run, their strength had been undermined by the orgy with her vampire lovers. She wore their scent just as surely as Jaden wore his. Maybe this too fueled his rage.
“You’re not to leave the temple until after the ritual,” he said. She could sense the effort it took to keep his tone conversational. “At least here, I can keep you safe.”
“Jaden, I know we talked about it before, but it’s certain now. Your mother is trying to kill you.”
He sank onto the edge of the bed. She joined him, worried how he might handle the truth now that she’d said it out loud.
“She tried to kill all of us,” he said tonelessly.
“Yes, but you’re her son. I don’t understand—”
“Val no longer has any use for me.” Jaden sprang to his feet and paced instead. “I’m a soldier fighting on the other side. But every hour that brings us closer to the ritual makes her stronger. And once she goes fully demon, not even hell can stop that woman.”
She heard the grief in his voice, but not a hint of self-pity. She might have guessed he’d accept the inevitability of Val wanting to kill him with his usual stoicism.
Yet if Delaney survived the carnal rites, Jaden and his followers would become human. With vampire strength, perhaps, but still vulnerable like she was. That was the thing about death—it came for everyone and was no respecter of personal agenda. All it would take was one well-timed attack and everything they’d worked so hard for, sacrificed so much for, would be gone.
“Jaden…” She caught him midstride, grabbed his arm and forced him to listen. “If something goes wrong and I don’t make it—”
“I won’t let that happen,” he said fiercely. “I’ll die first.”
“We’re dealing with supernatural forces that even you can’t control.”
“Don’t—”
“Just listen. If I fail to make it through this thing, I need to know you’ll go on with your life. I don’t want you feeling guilty or blaming yourself, not even Val. I need you to find a woman who’s worthy of being loved, and then love he
r. Don’t ask me to take the risk if you won’t honor my sacrifice. Promise me.”
His chest rose and fell as though it taxed him not to bellow like a pain-maddened bull and destroy everything in the temple. “I won’t do it. In two hundred years, you’re the only woman I’ve ever loved. I’m not going to let you die.”
“If it happens, you won’t be able to stop it.” Delaney swung her legs off the bed and stood to face him. “Back at the watershed, I got a taste of what I’m in for, and this isn’t some suburban wife-swap or a fraternity hazing. We’re playing with energy more primal, raw and powerful than anything we’ve ever known before.”
He turned away from her. Why was he being so stubborn? She had to find a way to get through to him, and words seemed to be failing her. Although she’d never tried to mind-link with him outside of sex, she attempted it now, delicately.
He blocked her at once.
“You don’t want to know what’s going on in my head,” he warned her.
“I don’t care,” she said hotly. “You can’t shut me out, not now. There’s too much at stake. We may not even have that much time.”
She tried the link again, more insistently.
“Fine,” he said. “But you’re here on my terms. And I have something to show you.”
She let him take the lead. A slideshow of images flipped past, some of them scenes she didn’t recognize. Her heart gave a painful twist when she saw her father at the dinner table, and—why, it was the first time she’d ever laid eyes on Jaden. There he was, looking very much as he appeared now. Val was talking about visiting the Christmas markets in Germany. Delaney could already tell Val didn’t like her, but her father had seemed so happy. And putting up with Val meant being near Jaden.
Delaney watched herself at fourteen, clumsy and awkward and painfully shy, pretending to sip from a water glass so she could throw glances at him. Even then, if she remembered correctly, she’d concocted a plan to complain to her friends about having a new stepbrother and then watch their jaws drop when he came to pick her up at school.
“I was in love with you even then,” she told him wistfully.
“You were using me to test your feminine wiles.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Again, he showed her.
He’d been tinkering with the motorcycle for the better part of a year, crazy with impatience to ride it. Sometimes curiosity seemed to get the better of Delaney and she’d come out to the garage, all legs and hair and scuffed bare feet, to watch him fumble around with the tools. Other times she’d just roll her eyes disdainfully at the dinner table when he talked about his motorcycle, or make the blah-blah-blah hand that females seemed to do so well. Even half-grown ones like her.
But the day he got the bike legal to ride, he felt Delaney watching him from the house. Arms stretched out to the handlebars, feet braced on the ground, he paused briefly, savoring a moment of imminent freedom.
The chrome he’d so lovingly polished sparked novas of sunlight. The black leather gleamed. He started the bike up and teased open the throttle. The engine sounded like a growl of pure female desire.
A door slammed. He looked up. Delaney came running, her chest heaving, breathless. She wore a blue halter top tied at the neck and the waist, and white shorts. She’d clipped back her glossy hair.
Delaney Jones, who had been treating him somewhat regally these days, wanted something.
“Drive me up to the mall,” she said over the stutter of the engine.
“No.”
“Come on.”
“Why should I?”
“It’s Dad’s birthday. Just do it, will you? It’s not going to take that long.”
She swung her leg over the back. Her arms snaked around his middle as she settled in. Thin metal bracelets banded one wrist. Her breasts pressed against his back. He wondered if it was right to notice something like that.
She waited for him, her expression a little curious. He could see her face in his side mirror.
“One time. You hear me? I’m not a taxi service.”
“Did I say you were?”
“And you wear a helmet.”
She gave him a long look before dismounting, swiping the spare off a workbench, and then climbing back on again. He gunned it, and they took off.
He could barely remember the ride, only that she was there, and he could feel her pressed up against him. Once she might have tried to talk, but the wind and the engine made talking impossible.
The mall parking lot smelled of hot metal and asphalt. He pulled up to the front to let her off. She dismounted, handed the helmet back to him. The windy ride had whipped color into her cheeks and lips, had given her hair a wild bed-mussed look. Her dark eyes locked on to his, and he found himself staring back, unable to tear his gaze away. His heart pounded. Longing for her ate at him like a wolf. He shoved it down again, ashamed, even angry for thinking that he had never seen anyone more beautiful.
She’d turned and walked away while he waited in that hot stinking parking lot, bristling because other guys were checking her out. Delaney went through the whoosh of automatic doors, bracelets jangling on her thin wrist. He thought of the smile of feminine triumph she would give him if she caught him looking. But the truth of it was he caught himself looking a lot these days. And nothing good was going to come of it.
“I remember,” Delaney said out loud, blinking in surprise. “If I had known how you felt… But why are you showing this to me?”
Jaden took her face in his hands and kissed her lips. The kiss had tenderness to it, but with undercurrents of fire. Those memories apparently had the same effect on both of them.
“I wanted to show you,” he whispered. “I wanted you to see why life would be impossible without you. I know the ritual is dangerous. But nothing—not my mother, not all the supernatural powers on earth—can come between us.”
* * *
“May we come in?”
Delaney whirled around in surprise. The woman who’d spoken entered the bedchamber, and a dozen more women crowded in behind her.
So far, Delaney hadn’t seen anyone besides Jaden and three of her four lovers. She had a great deal of curiosity about the vampires who’d chosen mortality, but now, standing there transfixed and a little self-conscious, she almost wished Jaden were here to deflect the women’s equally curious stares. But Jaden was with the men downstairs, preparing the ceremonial chamber for the sacred rites, and she’d been rattling around up here, getting more nervous by the second.
The woman approached and then knelt, her silver-blonde hair cascading over her shoulders.
“Please don’t kneel!” Delaney exclaimed.
“You are the Chosen,” the woman said, rising. “We have come to pay our respects.”
Delaney stared at them in wonder. All were beautiful in the way of fairy-tale sorceresses, long haired, with tip-tilted eyes. They wore tunics belted low at the hips, which accentuated their supple waists. Attired in her usual shorts and T-shirt, Delaney felt tragically underdressed. Yet she found herself speculating—even amused by the irony of it—how many of these bewitching creatures had once known Jaden in the same Biblical way that she did. He’d been alive a long time, and it was entirely likely he’d bedded at least a few.
But now these particular vampires were weary of immortality and eternal thirst. They were, in a manner of speaking, vegetarians of the vampire world. And they saw her as their salvation.
“She’s beautiful,” the first woman said approvingly to the others, who seemed to flutter in agreement. “No wonder Jaden is so in love.”
Delaney couldn’t help but smile. It pleased her to know they didn’t resent her for it.
“I’m Gillian,” the woman told her. She nodded to a dark-haired version of herself. “That’s my sister, Rue.”
“There are so many of you,” Delaney mar
veled. “Where have you been hiding this whole time?”
“Twice as many men and women are camped out in caves,” Rue said. “We’ve been here for a few weeks now, waiting for you. There are more chambers here like yours, but on the other side of the temple.”
“Will they need to watch the ceremony in order to, uh, be transformed?”
“No, they just need to be outside, conducting their own ceremony,” Rue said sweetly. “The transformation will happen as soon as the ritual is completed.”
Gillian added, “Jaden wanted to keep crowding to a minimum. He insisted you were a private sort of person and might feel overwhelmed if you saw us…” She knit her brow as though trying to remember his exact words.
“‘Milling around like a bunch of hungry cats,’” Rue said helpfully. “But when we ran into him downstairs, he said we could finally come up and attend to you.”
“Attend to me?” Delaney said.
Gillian clapped her hands and the women mobilized, several of them holding out their hands and conjuring a large stone bathtub. Another woman cast a spell, and water appeared. A fifth woman cast flower petals over that water, which made it steam.
“You want me to get in there?” Delaney asked meekly. It looked like a giant witch’s cauldron. She felt more hands pulling at her clothes. She stood, nude and embarrassed, while they waited.
“You need rest,” Rue told her. “We’ve infused the water with a sleeping draught. Tomorrow night, the first night of the full moon, you will undergo the ritual.”
“But if we’re lucky and our magic holds, you’ll sleep until then.” Gillian lifted her lovely arms, chanted an incantation, and a threadbare, distinctly Peruvian towel appeared. She looked at it in dismay.
“Is that the best you can do?” Delaney asked her, suppressing a smile.
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