Knowing it was useless, he tugged against the heavy silver shackle that chained his right ankle to a thick bolt in the floor. The only thing it accomplished was a searing pain in the palm of his hand.
He sat up, eyes narrowing against the light, when the door to his prison opened. An oath escaped his lips when he recognized his visitor.
She held a candle in one hand. After closing the door, she stood with her back against it, obviously afraid to approach him.
He stood slowly so as not to scare her away. “What the devil are you doing here?”
“I don’t know. If Russell finds out, he’ll be very angry.”
“So why did you come?”
“My daughter loves you,” Dorothy said.
Gideon nodded. “That surprises you, doesn’t it?”
“Frankly, yes. And no.” She smiled faintly. “How can I condemn her for falling in love with a vampire when I married a werewolf?” She studied him a moment, then sighed heavily. “I’ve never been a very good mother, partly because I couldn’t fully understand Kiya, but mostly because, as much as I love my husband, I’ve always been afraid of him.”
“But you married him anyway.”
“Yes, but that was before I knew what he was. I tried to leave him when I found out, but he wouldn’t let me take my children with me, and I couldn’t leave them behind.”
“And now your daughter’s trapped in a marriage she doesn’t want,” Gideon said.
Tears shimmered in Dorothy’s eyes. “There was nothing I could have done to stop it.”
He didn’t have to read her mind to know that guilt was eating her up inside. “So, what do you want from me?”
“I want your word that you’ll make Kiya happy for as long as you live.”
Gideon snorted. “I doubt if that’ll be very long, all things considered.”
“Promise me!”
“I love Kiya,” Gideon said quietly. “I’d never do anything to hurt her. Or you. You have my word that I’ll take care of her and do my best to make her happy all the days of her life.”
Dorothy stared at him for several moments, then reached into her pocket and withdrew a large silver key. She moved warily toward him, then bent down and unlocked the chain that held him bound. “Go, quickly!”
“Come with me.”
“I can’t.” She shook her head. “I wouldn’t know how to survive out there.”
“He’ll kill you for this.”
“Maybe. It doesn’t matter as long as Kiya is happy. She’s had a taste of freedom.” Dorothy smiled sadly. “She told me once that she never wanted to live my life. With your help, I intend to see that she doesn’t have to.”
“If there’s ever anything I can do for you …”
“Just tell her I love her.”
Gideon nodded; then, with a last sympathetic look at a courageous woman, he dissolved into mist and left the house.
Dorothy stared at the place where Gideon had been standing only seconds ago. She had seen many amazing things since coming to live here, but she didn’t know which was more astonishing, watching her husband and daughter transform themselves into wolves, or seeing Gideon dissolve into a shimmering gray mist and simply disappear.
With a shake of her head, she started toward the door, only to come to an abrupt halt when Russell filled the doorway. His gaze swept the room, then came to rest on her.
“Where is he?” Russell asked.
His voice rang like thunder, echoing off the walls, filling her heart with terror. “He’s …” She took a deep breath. “I let him go.”
He glared at her, his eyes narrowed to angry slits.
“Kiya loves him.” It was a weak excuse at best.
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“She deserves to be happy.”
“As her Alpha, Kiya deserves whatever I say.” He took a step toward her, fists clenched at his sides. “She belongs to me. She will do as I say, when I say, the same as any other member of the pack. I thought you understood that.” He took another step forward, towering over her, his rage a palpable thing. “Do you understand?”
She nodded, unable to speak past the lump of fear in her throat. She had never experienced his anger before, never truly understood how dangerous he could be.
Until this moment, she had never considered herself to be part of the pack, or thought of her husband as being her Alpha. It occurred to her that she was at his mercy. As Alpha, he held the power of life and death over the werewolves in the compound. None of them would condemn him, regardless of the punishment he imposed upon her.
It was a frightening thought. She wrapped her arms around her waist, chilled to her very core by the merciless expression in his eyes, the cruel twist of his lips.
This, she thought, taking a wary step backward, this is what death looks like.
* * *
Chapter 30
The night after Dorothy freed him, Gideon stood in the midnight shadows outside the Rinaldi compound. Earlier, he had tried to get inside the fence, but to no avail. It was obvious that Alissano had alerted Victor to the fact that Gideon was no longer a prisoner. And just as obvious that Diego and his family had been warned to take the necessary precautions to keep Gideon out of the compound and out of the house.
He ignored the temptation to contact Kay. Until he could come up with a plan to get her safely away from Victor, it seemed best to keep silent. No point in getting her hopes up.
Dammit! Unless he could find someone to invite him into the house—and the chances of that seemed pretty slim now that the werewolves knew he was on the loose—he would never get her out of there.
It seemed hopeless. Or was it?
A thought took him to Apache Junction and a small white house located on a quiet street.
Clad in a long white nightgown, Kusuma Ila opened the door, a rifle held rock steady in her hands, a black cat on either side of her.
Gideon blinked at her. “Who were you expecting?”
With a shrug, she took a step back, allowing him entrance. “It is late.” She closed the door behind him, then propped the rifle in the corner. “What brings you here at this hour?” she asked, and then chuckled softly. “I guess it is not late, for nightwalkers.”
She cleared a space on the sofa for him, then sat down in her rocker. “Why have you come?”
Gideon shook his head. “I didn’t have anywhere else to turn.”
“Are you still running from Verah?”
“You know about that?” He leaned back on the couch, his legs stretched out in front of him.
Kusuma Ila made a vague gesture with one hand. “I hear things.” Leaning down, she stroked the cats.
Gideon cocked his head to one side. “What things?”
“Verah is no longer a prisoner in the Rinaldi house.”
“Who told you that?”
Kusuma Ila picked up one of the cats and scratched its ears. “Does it matter?”
Gideon glanced from the cat to the witch. “The cat told you?”
“In a way.”
“What else do you know?”
“Before Verah made her escape from the werewolf ’s compound, the boy gave her a vial of your blood.”
Damn! That swine, Victor, must have helped himself to a few cc’s of his blood while Gideon was at rest.
“Why would that old crone want your blood?” Kusuma Ila asked.
“Don’t you know? You seem to know everything else.”
“I have heard rumors,” the witch replied. “Macabre rumors.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Are they true, those rumors?”
“I don’t know. It depends on what you’ve heard.” He blew out a sigh of exasperation. All he needed was another witch who wanted to bleed him dry.
Kusuma Ila snorted. “You think I am like her?” she asked indignantly.
“I sure as hell hope not,” Gideon muttered dryly. “Do you know where she is?”
Kusuma Ila p
ut the first cat down and picked up the other one. Humming tunelessly, the witch gazed into the cat’s eyes for several minutes.
Gideon felt the old woman’s power rise, felt it coalesce around the witch and the cat. It skittered over his skin like tiny electrical sparks.
And then, abruptly, it was gone.
Kusuma Ila shook her head as if to clear it.
The cat curled up in Kusuma Ila’s lap, purring loudly.
Gideon stared at the cat.
It stared back at him, slanted yellow eyes unblinking.
Gideon leaned forward. What the hell? He raked a hand through his hair. For a moment there, while staring into the cat’s eyes, he could have sworn he saw Verah standing in a dark room, chanting softly while gazing into a bowl of dark water.
“She’s gone home, hasn’t she?” he asked.
Kusuma Ila nodded.
“And she’s still hunting me?”
The witch’s silence was all the affirmation he needed.
“She can’t track me,” Gideon muttered, thinking aloud. “So she’ll go after Kiya again.” But hell, he had known that all along, just as he knew there was only one way to protect the woman he loved, and that was to give the wicked witch of the west what she wanted.
“There is another way,” Kusuma Ila said matter-of-factly. “Kill her.”
Gideon glanced at Kusuma Ila. Sitting there, her long white hair in braids, one cat asleep in her lap and the other curled at her feet, she looked like someone’s kindly grandmother, not someone who had just suggested cold-blooded murder.
“I’d love to kill her,” he said, “but don’t you think she knows that? She’s not going to let me get close to her unless she knows I’m not a threat.”
Kusuma Ila stroked the cat’s head, her brow furrowed thoughtfully. “Give me a few days,” she suggested. “And I might be able to help you.”
* * *
Chapter 31
Kay was dreaming of Gideon when someone shook her shoulder. Murmuring, “Go away,” she tried to find her way back into her dream, back into the warmth and safety of Gideon’s arms.
“Wake up, Kiya!”
At the sound of Victor’s voice, she came fully awake, all her senses alert as the horror of the previous week returned full force. If he dared laid a hand on her again, he’d lose it!
Victor yanked the covers from the bed. “Get up.”
“What time is it?”
“What difference does that make? Your father is here.”
“My father’s here?” She blinked up at Victor as he switched on the light.
“Didn’t I just say that?” Victor stood over her. For once, he didn’t glare at her. Instead, he looked uncharacteristically subdued. “I wouldn’t keep him waiting, if I were you.”
Kay sat up, reaching for the robe at the foot of her bed. “What’s going on?”
Victor didn’t answer, merely turned on his heel and left the room.
Something was wrong.
She stared after him a moment; then, drawing her robe tightly around her, she followed Victor downstairs. When she entered the living room, her father turned away from the window. Kay felt her stomach turn over at the somber expression on his face.
Something was definitely wrong.
“What is it?” she asked, unable to keep the worry from her voice. “What’s happened?”
“I’ve come to take you home.”
Arms wrapped around her waist, she stared at him. What wasn’t he telling her?
“Get whatever you need for overnight. Victor can bring the rest of your things tomorrow.”
She didn’t argue. She was all too happy to leave Victor and his taciturn parents behind. All too happy to go home because Gideon was there. Somehow, she would find a way to see him. The thought made her smile inside; had she been alone, she would have laughed with the joy of anticipation, but that would never do, not with her father watching her.
Hurrying back upstairs, she grabbed a change of clothes and a pair of shoes. She was going home!
Returning to the living room, she glanced at Victor. He stood next to the fireplace, his arms folded over his chest, his expression sullen. He remained mute when she followed her father out to the car.
Once she was settled, her father put the car in gear and drove out of the compound. He refused to tell her why he was spiriting her away from the Rinaldi home place in the middle of the night, leaving her to imagine the worst. Her first thought was that something had happened to Gideon, but her father wouldn’t come after her in the middle of the night because of that. The only other thing she could think of was that her mother was sick, dead, dying… .
Kay felt an immense sense of relief when her mother, clad in nightgown and robe, met her at the front door. But one look at her mother’s face and Kay knew something was terribly wrong at home.
“Your old room is ready,” Dorothy said, not quite meeting Kay’s eyes.
“Mom, are you all right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Dorothy, go to bed,” Russell said curtly. “I need to speak with Kiya.”
Kay frowned when her mother lowered her head and hurried out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
Kay sank down on the sofa, the clothing she had brought with her clutched in her hands. “What’s going on?” She was suddenly certain that something awful had happened to Gideon. It would explain why he hadn’t opened the link between them, why she couldn’t feel him. She bit down on her lower lip to keep from asking about him, knowing it would only make her father even angrier than he was already.
“You’ll be staying here for a while,” her father said.
Kay nodded. She wished he would just say whatever he had to say and get it over with.
Taking the chair opposite the sofa, he regarded her with hooded eyes.
It made her nervous when he looked at her like that, as if he was trying to see into her very soul.
“The witch managed to escape from Rinaldi’s,” her father said at last.
Kay stared at him. Verah was free? Of all the things he might have said, that came as the biggest surprise. Why had no one told her?
“That’s not all. Tonight, your mother took it upon herself to free that damn vampire.”
Gideon wasn’t here? Kay shook her head in disbelief. “What happened? Did he hypnotize her or something?”
“No.”
She couldn’t imagine her mother doing anything so daring on her own. And if it was true, and Gideon was no longer a prisoner, then why hadn’t he contacted her?
“If she wasn’t compelled, why would she do something like that?” Kay asked. She had to know, although she didn’t really care. The only thing that mattered was that Gideon was free. If her mother had been in the room, Kay would have kissed her.
Russell cracked his knuckles. “Until we find him again, you’ll be staying here, where I can keep an eye on you.” He stood, his gaze capturing hers. “You will not contact him,” he said, and it was no longer her father speaking, but her Alpha. “If he gets in touch with you, you will let me know. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Go to bed.”
Kay stood as well. “What have you done to my mother?”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you questioning my authority?”
She refused to be cowed by the tone of his voice or by the way he stood there, bristling. “I want to know what you’ve done to her.”
“I taught her a lesson she should have learned a long time ago.”
“You broke her spirit!” Kay exclaimed, remembering the vacant expression on her mother’s face, the way she had bowed her head, as if she were a servant instead of a member of the family. “How could you do such a despicable thing? She’s as good as dead inside!”
“I will not have anyone who resides under my rule defy me.”
Kay felt her anger rise up, as bitter as gall. “You’re her husband, not her master. You’re supposed to love her, protect her… .”
<
br /> “I am Alpha here,” he said, his voice a low growl. “As such, I will be obeyed. By my pack. By my daughter. By my wife. I do not need your approval, Kiya, only your obedience. I will not be judged by you or anyone else. Do you understand?”
“No, I’ll never understand. Good night, Father.”
“Remember what I said.”
She nodded curtly. As if she could ever forget.
Kay paused on her way up the stairs when she heard footsteps behind her. Thinking it might be her mother, she glanced over her shoulder. It wasn’t Dorothy, but Jerry Mule Deer, one of her pack mates. His gaze slid away from hers, as if he was ashamed to look at her.
With a sigh of resignation, she continued on to her room. Once again, she was to be under guard.
Jerry bid her a quiet good night when she closed her bedroom door.
Alone in her room, Kay sank down on the foot of the bed. Gideon was free. She shook her head, unable to wrap her mind around the fact that her mother had done something in blatant violation of her father’s will. Kay didn’t know what her father had done in retaliation, but whatever it was, it had drained the life out of her mother. Looking at her was like looking at a zombie.
Blinking the tears from her eyes, Kay fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, her thoughts again turning to Gideon. He loved her. She knew he did. Where was he? And why hadn’t he let her know what her mother had done?
Kay rolled onto her side, her head pillowed on her hand. It seemed like years since she’d seen Gideon. What if he had gone back to New York? Maybe he’d decided that butting heads with her family was just too much darn trouble. Not that she could blame him.
She gasped, remembering what else her father had said. Verah was free. Was that why Gideon hadn’t contacted her? Merciful heavens, surely the witch didn’t have him in her power again!
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