“Tell me again you love me,” Devlin said, desperate. “Please.”
“I love you,” I said, hugging him tightly. “And I love your eyes, your beautiful golden eyes. I’m not leaving you or Danial. Not ever.”
“Ah, Sar,” Devlin sighed. “I love you enough to let you run, but far too much to let you fly.”
“And I love your glances meeting mine, across forever or a room. Your touch, Dev, is strong enough for me to hang my aspirations on.”
Devlin shot me a dazzling smile. “I didn’t know you were familiar with McKuen,” he said, kissing me gently.
I gave him one back. “I’ve been brushing up on various poets, the better to amuse you.” I threw back the covers. “Now I really ought to go shower.”
Devlin followed me to the bathroom, where he examined the bites he had given me as the shower warmed up.
“Are you worried? Aren’t they healed? They don’t hurt.”
“They were really deep,” Devlin said, lust threaded through his words. “I wanted to make sure before I let you get in the shower. But you’re right; they’re healed.”
* * * *
When I emerged, he was dressed and waiting. “I’ll see you on Friday night for the appointment at Stephen’s office,” Devlin said, giving me a kiss. “Come, I’ll walk you down.”
“Do you want me to help you change the sheets?” I asked.
“No,” Devlin said longingly. “I’ll do it later.”
Would he change the sheets at all? Maybe he liked it. Eww.
I followed him down to the kitchen. The pie and bread were gone.
“I love you,” Devlin whispered, hugging me again. “Tell Danial I said hi.”
I gave him a sarcastic look and teleported, arriving in the great room near Danial. He was sitting on the couch, his laptop in front of him.
“I should’ve known you’d be working,” I said.
“You smell faintly of blood,” he said, worried. “Your blood. Are you okay?”
“Dev brought The Lust. He bit me deeply, but they’re healed now.”
Danial hugged me, relieved. “He went on and on about how much he was looking forward to seeing you under it. I hope you let him experience the full scope of it.”
“He liked it,” I answered, trying to keep the distaste out of my voice, and not succeeding. “A lot—”
“Still, he can satisfy it for you,” Danial said seriously. “I’ll do whatever you need me to, of course, but I prefer not to hurt you, even though I can heal you after.” He took my hand. “Come. We just have time for a walk before dinner.”
* * * *
For a long time that night, we just laid together on the bed, touching gently as we talked.
“Did you call Elle today?” I asked.
“Everything is fine at home,” Danial reassured. “Elle has started some advanced dancing lessons. Theo took her today. I could tell by his voice he was enjoying the attention.”
Theo made it a point now to dress in tight T-shirts whenever he picked Elle up from her dance class. The other mothers, as well as the instructor, fawned over him, wanting to hear his latest stories of “working security detail.” He’d probably worn his tightest jeans, too.
“Elle has talked about piano lessons also,” Danial continued. “Would you mind if Devlin gave them to her?”
“He plays piano? I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t you see his grand piano at his house?”
“No,” I said. “Maybe it’s in storage.”
“Probably,” Danial said thoughtfully. “It used to be in the ballroom, and that’s being worked on. He wouldn’t have risked it being damaged.”
“No, I don’t mind her learning from him. For all his capability of being a pain in the ass, he was a good teacher when he gave me voice lessons.”
Danial laughed, then said seriously, “Elle also wants to have another sleep over. She said June. Is that doable for you?”
“That should be fine. I’ll be six months along by then.”
“You’re sure you’re pregnant? We haven’t seen the doctor yet.”
“The Lust has been raised four times in less than a week,” I said flatly.
“Are you sure it’s The Lust?”
“I have no symptoms of weakness, and my health is perfect, thanks to you and Dev. So it’s got to be that. I’m pregnant with a dhamphir.”
“I’m so excited, Sar,” Danial said tenderly. “Theoron will have a half brother or sister, like I had in Devlin. They won’t be separated, like he and I were, because of different social standing. They’ll be true siblings.”
That was a silver lining in all this. My heart lifted. “Yes,” I responded, pleased. “Yes, they will.”
* * * *
Thursday passed quickly. We both knew it was our last day together, and we spent every moment of it in each other’s company. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, so we stayed inside, making love and sleeping. I also managed to finish off the baskets of fruit and chocolate. That night, I wore the red dress Danial so loved to dinner.
“I meant to ask you to bring it—” I began over dinner.
“I found it when I was moving the boxes one day last fall. It still smelled like you.”
“I wanted you to have it,” I said, putting my hand over his. “I didn’t want to wear it for anyone else, ever.”
“I’m going to have Tatiana copy it,” Danial murmured lovingly. “The original I’ll save, but the replica I’ll keep with your other clothes, for you to wear when you and I go out.”
“Good,” I said, happily.
There was something sad about that last night, even in our beautiful surroundings enjoying the excellent food. I felt as Danial smiled at me across the table that he was already missing me, thinking of tomorrow night, when he would be alone, and I would be with Theo. It was in his eyes.
Later, after we had gone to bed, I initiated lovemaking again, trying to tell him that I loved him, not to be sad, because it didn’t matter if we weren’t together like this every day, he was still in my heart.
* * * *
Friday dawned bright and early. It was then I remembered Devlin’s words about meeting me at Camlyn’s.
I turned to Danial, and woke him. “Should I pack? I have to be back in time for my appointment.”
Danial blinked. “What appointment?”
Chapter Seventeen
Wonderful. I’d told Theo and Dev, then forgotten to tell Danial. “I have a doctor appointment tonight at eight. We can teleport, though. There’s no rush.”
Danial got up. “Get dressed, Love. We need to talk to Titus. Devlin set him to watch the house. See if he can drive back the car, if I teleport with you. If he can’t we’ll have to try to drive back. I think if we leave here right at dusk, we can make it. Worst-case scenario, you can teleport there without me, if you have to.”
I pulled on some clothes. “I’ll go out to the SUV and get the maps. Titus will see me come out, if he’s out there.”
Danial nodded, still dressing.
I was rooting around in the SUV for maps when I felt a wave of evil blackness engulf me. “Hi Titus,” I said, not looking up. “How’s it going?”
“You should be more careful,” Titus said in his deep rumbling voice, looking in the opposite SUV window. “It could have been any demon, Sar, not just me. We all feel this way, you know.”
“I knew it was you.” I looked up, smiling. “Dev said that he set you to watching the house by day.”
Titus walked around the SUV, dressed in only a T-shirt, and jeans. With the heat he generated, he probably never wore more than that. “I’m leaving at dusk, tonight,” he said, his red eyes serious. “I’ve got a lot to do. Though I don’t mind the cold, I’ve completely caught up on my reading. Guard duty is so stultifying.”
Titus thought he was too much of an intellectual to spend hours watching a house. Maybe he was. He did know a lot of magic. Guard duty probably really was stultifying...My amusement le
ssened sharply, remembering Lash had used that same word to describe me.
“Will you and Danial be okay?” Titus rumbled. “I would rather be bored than to leave you in a dangerous position.”
Even standing a few feet away, his heat was still warming me. Ahh. “No, actually, that’s what I came out here to ask you. I need to head back for an appointment. Can you drive the SUV back, and our things if I teleport myself and him home?”
“Sure,” he replied. “When are you leaving? I’ll stay until you leave.”
“Take off,” I said, giving him a quick hug. “We’re leaving at dusk tonight. We should be fine until then. I’ll be awake the whole time we’ll be here, and I’ll teleport us away, if anything happens.”
“You’re sure?” Titus said hesitantly. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I noticed he didn’t include Danial in that. Where did his loyalty really lie? Devlin had not included him on his short list of persons he trusted. Maybe there was a reason for that.
“Why do you work for Dev?” I asked. “You don’t seem to like him much. Do you have to?”
“Yes,” Titus said curtly.
Had Devlin summoned him out of Hell so he had no choice but to do what Devlin told him? The thought of the real Hell complete with the devil and brimstone and fire gave me chills. “Why?”
“I work for him because he’s a good employer,” Titus rumbled, giving me a strange look. “I could either work for myself, selling my magical knowledge or my strength, or work for someone like him using the same talents. It’s easy working for Devlin, especially as he’s a Ruler. He’s not a bad boss, and he gives me what I need, which is a big plus.”
I gave him a quizzical look. “What’s that mean?”
“Terian told you he ate flesh and blood sometimes?” Titus prompted.
Suddenly I didn’t want to understand, because I could guess where this was headed. “Yes.”
“I’m a demon, Sar,” Titus said, his eyes burning into me, his smile a little sad. “I can’t eat real food. That is all I can eat. What I need to eat.”
I got it loud and clear, yet I couldn’t seem to get the words out. “You...you eat—”
“Sometimes,” Titus said in a low voice. “I prefer not to. I prefer to eat only animals. But sometimes I have to, to be healthy and stay as powerful as I am.”
I was very, very glad I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I’d have gotten sick for sure.
“They are never alive,” Titus rumbled gently.
The ramifications of that hit me like a fist. I swayed, holding onto the SUV door. I couldn’t bring myself to say it was okay that he ate people, even if they were bad. That they weren’t alive when he ate them only made it marginally better. I understood now why Devlin had taken Garrett’s body with him that night he had taken Neoline.
My stomach rolled. God. He’d taken Tasha to feed to Titus, too...I held onto the door with both hands.
“It isn’t something I relish,” Titus said, averting his gaze, upset. “I don’t have a choice about it, Sar. I would have rather been born an angel or a human, in retrospect.”
I fastened on that, anything else to get off this topic. “There are angels? Real ones?”
“I think so,” Titus replied. “I’m not sure. Books refer to them sometimes. But I’ve never seen any, and I’ve seen a lot in the centuries I’ve lived.”
I was not going to ask him if the Devil was real. I was too afraid of the answer. Titus kept talking, his rumbling voice like stone grating on stone. “In any case, I have what I need to survive and Devlin pays well. I’m loyal to him for that, despite some of the reprehensible things he does sometimes.” Titus paused. His next words were softer, content. “I’m as comfortable as I’m going to be in this world, anyway.”
“Are you getting back with Leri?” I asked flatly.
“I love her, Sar,” Titus said defensively, meeting my eyes with his red ones. “I’m sorry for what she did to you and Terian, but I love her and I want to be with her.”
Like father, like son, I thought but didn’t say. “How’s that going to work? Devlin won’t let her stay at Hayden.”
“She’s staying in the village below it, for now. We are taking it slow. I want to be able to trust her. I don’t yet. And I care about my son; I don’t want to alienate him after I’ve missed so much time with him already.”
“I understand that, but I don’t want to see her, Titus. She fucked up Terian badly with what she did to him. I’m not going to forgive her for that.”
“Understood,” Titus said, nodding. “I won’t be bringing her to Hayden anyway, so you should never meet her. Now I should go, and report back to Devlin you are leaving at dusk.” He left, fading out of sight in an instant.
Was he irritated I wasn’t jumping on the Leri Bandwagon? Grumpy at that thought, I went back in with the maps.
Danial came over to me immediately. “What were you two talking about? You looked upset.”
I relayed the conversation to him. “Devlin draining Tasha was just. Knowing she got eaten after makes me feel guilty.”
“You had to know he ate flesh and blood,” Danial said with disbelief. “He’s a demon. That’s what they do.”
I was an idiot. I’d thought of Titus as a nice demon, who only ate pork chops and steak when I’d known what he was capable of. “I didn’t think of it, really.”
The phone rang.
“Please answer it,” Danial said, taking the maps. “I’ll look over these. Perhaps we do have time to drive home.”
Why would I want to drive home when I could teleport? I picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Sar,” Theo said, relieved. “I’m headed out for the day. I wanted to touch base before I left.”
“Will you be in time to meet me at the doctor’s? I can’t remember if I told you about the appointment—”
“You did. But I’m not coming. I don’t want to be there.”
“Why?” I said, trying not to sound hurt. “It might be—”
“It’s not,” he said flatly. “You have The Lust, Sar. I can’t stand there and watch him look at me with glee knowing how much I wanted it to be mine.”
“All right,” I said softly. “I understand.”
“I’ll be waiting for you at Danial’s house. Come there after your appointment, and I’ll drive you home.”
“Okay,” I said. “Bye.”
I stared down at the receiver, the dial tone loud in my ears. Hate and resentment rose up in me; for Theo in his bitterness, for the situation I was in, for the vampires who controlled my life now...
Danial took the phone from me and hung it up on the wall. “You look angry.”
I rubbed my eyes, my anger dissipating. “I’m just tired of all this.”
“Then come,” Danial said, taking my hand. “We still have today. Come share it with me, while it lasts.”
“Yes,” I said compliantly, following him upstairs.
* * * *
Danial and I left the house as soon as the sun had set. Stephen greeted us at the door, his blue eyes kind, his weathered face crinkled in a smile. “Come in,” he said pleasantly. “Devlin’s already here.”
He was standing over near the exam room door. Lash was with him. Nice. “Please wait out here,” I said pointedly, walking past them.
After taking a sample of my blood, Dr. Camlyn asked me to undress, then went to leave.
I nodded. “What’s the blood sample for?”
“Devlin told me he bit you, and there was a lot of blood,” Stephen said, annoyed. “I told him not to do it again, but I need to make sure that you are okay.”
“I’ve been taking the vitamins, both kinds.”
He nodded. “That will help, but I may need to give you some of that blood replenishing formula.”
Fabulous. That stuff tasted like used car oil. “I’m fine, really.”
“We’ll look and see. Please undress.”
I did as he asked, then lay on the table
in my paper gown. When the door opened a moment later, I turned, expecting it to be Stephen. Instead, it was Devlin and Danial.
“Stephen said we could come in,” Danial said hesitantly. “We both want to be here with you when you find out.”
“You had better switch your rings,” Devlin said with amusement. “Theo’s sure to notice.”
“Thanks,” I said, flushing, and moved my rings around so the band and diamond Theo had given me was again on my ring finger and Danial’s rings were on my right hand.
“I had to remind him to switch his as well,” Devlin said with more amusement. “You two are just like a pair of teenagers.”
I rolled my eyes, laughing. But as the minutes passed my easygoing nature slipped. Soon I was grumbling silently, thinking about how I was sick of being naked on tables and men wanting things from me.
Stephen came in. “Sarelle, as it did before, your blood shows that you should have turned a long time ago, but—”
“She is not turning,” Devlin said in restrained fury. “I have turned enough women to know, Camlyn.”
Stephen glanced at him, then back at me. “Devlin seems to know what he is talking about. You are healthy, almost overly healthy. All your vitals look good. I don’t think you’ll need any additional vitamins either; at least I won’t prescribe any at this time. I do need to check to see if you’re pregnant. If you aren’t, I can at least confirm that your scars are or are not healed enough so you can try to be.”
“Couldn’t you say something else, Stephen?” I said irritably, lying back down.
“What would you like me to say?” Stephen said pleasantly, sitting down by my feet.
“Checking my reproductive system, maybe? Seeing if I’m ready to have children? Anything that doesn’t mention scars.”
“Is she always this way?” Devlin asked Danial.
“When she’s here like this, yes,” Danial said, giving him a quick raise of the eyebrows.
“I saw that,” I said, glaring at them both. “Why don’t you both wait outside?”
“Not a chance, Love,” Devlin purred, moving over to stand over me. “I want to know if the deed is done, or if I get the pleasure of trying anew tonight.”
Theo was expecting to take me home after this. If I went to Hayden instead...I tensed up immediately.
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