“Yes,” I said, sinking back gratefully. “I need to wait for Theo to report in to you tonight. I need him to sign those papers, and also give him a few things that he left behind at my house.” I paused. “And there’s more. Devlin started trying with me, Danial.”
“Do you feel rushed?” he said. “It may take a while to make you pregnant.”
“It’s not that, it’s his mood swings,” I confided. “I think everything’s wonderful, and then he suddenly angry, or melancholy. He said he feels heavy with all of his past on him. I don’t know what to say to him when he’s like that.”
“Devlin is often like that,” Danial said. “When he is in his moods, just let him be. He’ll take comfort from your nearness and your love.” He snuggled close. “I do.”
I hugged him, not replying. Minutes later, I fell asleep.
* * * *
“Sar, it’s afternoon,” Danial whispered. “Wake up.”
Groggily, I looked over at the clock. It was close to four. I stretched, and my hand brushed his naked hip.
I froze. Danial began to kiss me gently down the back of my neck, his hands easing beneath my clothes to cup my breasts. I turned to him and kissed him deeply, running my hands over his cool skin.
Danial pulled back from me. “Are you sure?” he said seriously, looking into my eyes. “I want you, but only if you want me.”
“I want you, Danial. I’m your Oathed One, aren’t I?”
“Yes,” he said, full of contentment and love as he pulled me close to him to kiss me. “Yes, My Love, you are.”
* * * *
After, I lay in his arms as he kissed me contentedly. “Are you happy?” I asked.
“Completely,” he said, giving me one of his rare wide smiles. “I have everything I ever wanted, Sar. I only wish you were as happy as I am.”
“There will come a day when I will be,” I said with a faint smile. “Just be patient.”
“It is easy to be patient now,” he said confidently. “I will have you with me for many years, not just a few. For the first time I see the future stretching before me and am not somnolent.” He nibbled my neck, his fangs pricking lightly. “My happiness aside, you should shower, Love. Theo will cooperate best if you don’t have anyone’s scent but your own on your skin.”
“Why?” I said recklessly. “He knows I’m with you and Devlin. He’ll expect me to smell like one or both of you. Even if he’s bothered by it, why should I care? We aren’t together anymore.”
“Because you still love him,” Danial said wisely. “Your jealously is talking, and you want to hurt him. Don’t do it. You’ll just regret it. There is Elle to consider.”
“You’re right,” I said, chagrined. “As usual.”
“I wish I was right more of the time,” Danial said wishfully. “But you’re just being generous with me.”
There was a knock. “Danial, phone call,” Brian said from outside the door.
“Just a minute.” Danial got up and put on his robe. “Sar, if you’ll start the shower, I’ll join you shortly.” He left.
When I used Danial’s shower, my toiletries were still where I’d left them months ago. Happy they hadn’t been tossed out, I used them, then began conditioning my hair.
Danial finally came in. He embraced me immediately, almost in desperation.
“What is it?” I said, worried. “What’s happened? Is Dev okay?”
“Another death threat,” he said wearily. “This one for both Theo and I.”
“Tell me everything.”
“You remember Peterson?”
“Yes,” I said bitterly. Peterson was the man who’d tried to kill us in Europe. His plan to use Theo and Danial for experimental subjects for his new explosive bullets gun had resulted in Theo’s abduction and our time apart, not to mention his meeting up with Tasha.
“Well, he has a brother, Maury, who has taken over the company. He knows Theo and I were behind the death of his brother, and the carnage of that night. He knows where we live. He knows Theo lived with you, Sar. Most likely he thinks he still does.”
“Who told you all this? Dev?”
“Samuel.”
“Why would he care? He hates Theo and he fought with you over me—”
“He would never have warned us, except that he wants you safe, and he’s worried you may be injured or killed by accident when Maury attacks Theo. He has information Maury plans to send a bomb by mail—”
My eyes went wide. “The package!” I screeched.
“What package?” Danial said sharply. “When did it arrive? Where is it?”
“Right after Christmas, a small package came to the house for Theo. I brought it with me today. It’s up on Theo’s desk.”
“Who was it from?” Danial said, dialing his phone.
“There was no return address.”
“Theo?” Danial said. “Get over here. I don’t care what you were doing, get over here now! We’ve got a bomb or something worse here.”
Danial hung up, and turned to me. “Sar, go upstairs and carry it out of the house.”
I gaped at him. “Are you crazy?”
“If you could set it off, you’d already be dead. I’ll wager any were who touches it will get a nasty surprise. I might even be enough to set it off.”
“You can withstand an explosion better than I can,” I shot back. “I might be pregnant, Danial.”
“Sar, you have been carrying that package around all day. It won’t do anything to you. You are the only human here to do it. Please, go now. Elle may come in at any moment. If it was engineered to be activated by a werecougar, she will surely set it off!”
I hurried upstairs, carefully picked up the package, then carried it down the stairs and out of the house. I walked down to the driveway and set the package on the ground, backing away a few paces. Should I leave it here? It was getting dark. What if someone coming in the driveway ran over it?
“Mom!” Elle shouted. I turned as she started running toward me, leaving Brian standing near the house.
“Stay back!” I yelled but she either didn’t hear me or didn’t listen. She reached me before I’d gone two steps. I grabbed her and pulled her close, and kept backing away from the package. “Move slowly!”
“What is it?” Elle said, scared. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s a bomb or something bad in there. But don’t worry, your father’s coming.”
Theo pulled up in his truck. He slammed the door and got out, swearing loudly, his clothes askew.
As he went to go inside, he saw us and stopped still. Then he came running at full speed for us. Grabbing our arms, he dragged us backward as fast as he could by our clothes.
Danial came outside, still buttoning his shirt. “Elle! Elle!”
Elle ran into his arms with a sob. “Dad!”
“What’s in there?” Theo said curtly, looking from Danial to me and back again. “That’s not a bomb, unless it’s a fake one.”
“Samuel warned me a bomb meant for you was sent by Andrew Peterson’s brother, Maury. He’s out for blood, Theo, yours and mine. That package came for you over Christmas to Sar’s house.”
Theo swore yet again. “When did it arrive?” he asked. “Why didn’t you give it to me before now?”
“It came while you were gone,” I said icily.
He looked away from me. “Was there anything you can remember about it? Weight? Was the contents heavy? Soft?”
“I remember it was light,” I said, thinking back. “It was too light to be a book, or anything metal, even a bullet. There was no return address, and the postmark wasn’t airmail, it was domestic. It felt like the package was empty, actually.”
“The postmark doesn’t mean anything,” Danial said. “It could have been sent here to the States from abroad, and then resent again though a mailing company.”
“We need Terian,” Theo said finally. “I’m betting it’s a poison, probably in dust form. We need to incinerate it. Where is he?”
>
“Off checking something for me,” Danial lied smoothly. “I can’t reach him.”
“Titus,” I said suddenly. “He can do it.”
Both of them looked at me. “How do you know Titus?” Theo said, his eyes narrowing.
“Good thinking,” Danial said, nodding to me. “I’ll call him now.” He headed inside, bringing Elle with him.
Theo followed me into the great room. “I asked you a question, Sarelle,” Theo said angrily.
Elle let go of Danial’s hand and snarled at Theo. “Go away!”
“Elle, go into your room. Stay there until I come and tell you that everything’s okay,” Danial commanded. Elle cast a last angry look at Theo, and then left.
I faced Theo. “He helped Devlin mark me, not that that’s any of your business. But I’m glad you’re here, because I’ve got something for you.” I walked upstairs, then returned with the papers and DVD. “Here.”
He took the DVD, and lay it on the table, his eyes scanning the papers. Then he handed them back. “I won’t sign these, Sarelle.”
“Why not?” I said nastily. “Don’t you want this over so you can ride off into the sunset?”
“I don’t want to wait a year to get divorced. I want our marriage annulled for the farce it was.”
I gaped at him. “What? You can’t do that.”
“I talked to a lawyer, and it’s the fastest way,” he continued. “I committed adultery. I’ll admit it as the cause. I’ll pay for it, even.” He took some folded papers from his back pocket. “Sign these, and you’ll be done with me.”
My fury at his lack of caring boiled over. I ripped his papers up and threw them at him. “That may be what you want, but it’s not what I want! You don’t sign these papers, fine. I won’t make you. But I’m not signing any paper to have our marriage annulled. So you either sign mine, or you’ll never be free to marry Tasha.”
He snarled at me, his eyes yellow. I faced him resolutely, my eyes flashing.
Theo took the papers and signed them, almost tearing the paper in his rage. He threw them down on the table, where they separated, some falling off. “You won’t bring me back to you, doing this,” he growled. “You’re just making things harder on everyone, including yourself.”
He turned abruptly and left, slamming out of the house. I gathered up the papers slowly, tears falling on them and wetting the pages, glad no one had witnessed our fight. Leaving the papers on the table, I went into Danial’s bathroom to wash my face.
I fingered the bear pendant. Maybe it was better to give in, to get free of Theo. Our love had been so powerful it devoured everything. When he was out of my life, I could concentrate on making a new life with Danial and Devlin.
Danial burst in. “Titus can’t come, at least not right away,” he said quickly. “But I finally got Terian. He insists on speaking to you privately before anything else.”
I put out my hand for the phone.
Danial shook his head. “He said to meet him at his lab.”
“What about the package?”
“Brian is guarding the package in bear form from a safe distance,” Danial said. “It’s not a bomb, but until its ashes, I’m going to be uneasy. Finish as fast as you can with Terian, and then bring him back.”
I nodded and vanished, teleporting to Terian’s lab. He was waiting for me, pacing the floor.
“We need your blue fire,” I said hurriedly. “Now what’s so urgent it can’t wait?”
“There’s no easy way to say this, Sarelle.” He paused, searching for the right words. “You wanted to know what was going on, why Theo didn’t wait for you as you had for him. Why he loved someone else.”
“And?” I prompted.
“He didn’t have a choice. Theo’s under a love spell.”
Chapter Six
“Love spell?” I said. “That can’t be right, Terian. He loved not only Tasha but Aspen, too—”
“Tasha is similar enough in feature to be Aspen’s twin, Sar. They look closer than sisters. He probably fell for Aspen for that reason alone. She resembled the person of his forced affection so closely he couldn’t help himself.”
“No, someone would have noticed—”
“No one could have,” he countered. “You avoided Tasha and none of us had ever seen Aspen. If I had, I would have suspected at once, as I did when I saw her in your memories.”
“But he left Aspen easily for me,” I said, confused.
“Aspen didn’t do this to him. She has no hold over him except her appearance, and when you renewed the dream with him, you lessened that. But if you had left him with her, he would have come to love her as an aftereffect of the spell.”
“All this about renewing the dream,” I said bitterly. “If our bond was as special as you make it out to be, how did Tasha get Theo back with just a letter?”
“Most likely there was a little of the spell on the paper,” Terian growled. “Theo was the one who opened it. That together with his character was enough to make him run to her rescue. Once he was with her again, it was likely easy to enfold him under the spell completely.”
Theo had said that he’d planned to come back to me after helping her, but that everything had changed in the space of a day. Just as it had changed the first time he fell in love with her. She’d used him to escape her father and her bored, rich life not once but twice. I was so angry I could barely talk. “You can break it, right?”
“No,” Terian admitted. “This spell was specially designed to hold Theo. It’s complicated and powerful. It had to be, to subvert what you and Theo share. Most love spells wouldn’t work on either of you. Everlasting Love is the most powerful spell of its kind. I don’t know how to break it. Even if I did, I don’t have enough magical power.”
I screamed in utter frustration, and dialed Devlin. Whatever Titus was doing, this was more important.
“Sar?” Devlin answered, purring. “Are you missing me?”
I bit back my scream. I had no time for games, but with his moods, I had to play this cautiously. “Devlin, send Titus to me,” I said with forced calm. “Immediately.”
“Sar, as I told Danial, he’s busy working,” Devlin drawled. “Now about this weekend—”
I lost it. “Dev, if you ever loved me at all, ever, send him to me! Terian needs his help desperately! Stop screwing around, God damn it!”
Terian let out a gasp. “No, wait—!”
“What in hell is going on there, Sar?” Devlin said, agitated. “Are you under attack?”
“Come and see for yourself!” I yelled. “Do whatever you have to, but get here! We’re in the werecompound, in Terian’s lab.”
“I’m coming now, Sar,” Devlin assured. “Stay there and don’t move.” He hung up.
“I’m not ready to see him,” Terian grumbled.
“Titus can help,” I shot back. “Besides, he’s your father and it’s about time you faced him and stopped dicking around.”
There was a knock at the door, then Titus strode in, followed by Devlin. Devlin came to my side immediately, as Titus approached Terian.
Seeing father and son together, the faint resemblance in their build and the shape of their jaw was noticeable.
“Terian, this is your father, Titus,” I said.
Terian held out his hand. Titus took it, then slowly pulled Terian into his arms for a hug. Terian didn’t resist. Soon he was holding his father as tightly as Titus was holding him.
“I’m sorry, Terian,” Titus rumbled softly. “If I’d known of you, even had an inkling, I’d have moved Hell and earth to find you.”
Terian swallowed hard.
“I always wanted a son,” Titus rumbled. “But Alerian didn’t want children. I never even knew she was pregnant.”
Terian began to tremble.
“Forgive me?” Titus rumbled, his low timbre breaking. “I’d like the chance to be your father.”
Terian pulled back slowly, tears in his eyes. “I’d like that.”
Titus hugged him again.
“Not that I wasn’t touched by that,” Devlin said, looking from Terian to me. “But you led me to believe there was some emergency here.”
“Theo is under a love spell,” Terian said gratingly. “The most powerful one there is.”
“What?” Devlin said, shocked. “Since when?”
“Which love spell?” Titus growled, his ferocious expression similar to the earth cracking open, a jagged maw of jagged sharp edges. “Who put it on him, and why?”
“Tasha, the woman he left Sar for. She bespelled him with Everlasting Love,” Terian said quickly. “I can’t break it, but maybe you can.”
“That makes sense,” Devlin said slowly. “That would explain how he could give Sar up so easily, despite the dream they shared together.”
“How do you know of that?” I said sharply to Dev.
Titus laughed, but it was a cold laugh, devoid of real humor. “You have much to learn. Brian reports regularly on everything that affects you, Sarelle. Before him, Lander sometimes gave us information.”
“And others, as well,” Devlin added.
“When you said you knew everything about me you needed to, Dev, I didn’t realize how much that entailed,” I said slowly.
“I know of the dream, how it happened the first time, and how it affected you both the second time,” Titus said. He looked at Devlin. “Whomever did this spell intended to entrap Theo, and keep him from Sarelle. This spell, if it is indeed the one Terian says it is, was both costly and complicated.” He looked at Devlin with red eyes. “I can break it, if that is really your will, Master.”
“You’re implying I put this spell on Theo,” Devlin said icily. “I didn’t. If I wanted Theo out of the way, I’d have had Lash kill him, like he’s wanted to for years. I wouldn’t have bothered with a spell.”
“Lash mentioned he was in Russia, that night he came to see you at my home,” I countered. “When was he there, Devlin?”
“He was in Moscow a few years ago,” Devlin said to me smoothly. “A werelion had been killed there, and he went to make sure it wasn’t Theo. When he verified it was not, he came home.”
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