“The last thing I want is what you and Lucian have. It nearly drove you to madness and death. I will never subject anyone to the pain that comes with me again. Despite what you think of me, I’m not that selfish of a bastard.” Kaden turned away and left the room.
“You may not have a choice, my boy. You can’t run from love.”
Lucian pulled Olivia closer and kissed her. “How much stronger are you feeling?” Lucian asked as he kissed her again. Before Olivia could answer, Corinne ran into the room and jumped on the bed, knocking Lucian away.
“You’re finally awake. I’ve been waiting to talk to you, but Lucian keeps hovering and then he said you were sleeping, but I knew you couldn’t be sleeping that much unless you were in that coma again and then…”
Olivia stopped her rambling friend. “Breathe, Cori. It’s ok. I’m better now.” The dam burst and Corinne wept inconsolably.
Lucian reluctantly left the room to allow the best friends a moment.
“Cori, I’m sorry I scared you like this. I’ll be ok.”
“There’s something I need to confess to you. You may hate me. I should’ve told you years ago but I didn’t want to lose your friendship. You’re the only real friend I have.”
“Cori, I know who you are. I’ve always known you and Daughton shared a father.” Corinne leapt away and stood by the wall. Her hazel eyes filled with shock. “I’ve always known, Cori. I wanted you to tell me on your own. I hoped you would see that it didn’t matter to me. I would never judge you based on unlucky genetics. I’m glad you came into my life. I needed you as my best friend and you’ve been more than I could have hoped. Stop feeling guilty about something you couldn’t control. You couldn’t stop Daughton from hurting me. He was far too strong for either of us. You helped me survive him though, and raise my children, and for that I will be eternally grateful. You’re my BFF.”
“I can’t believe you knew. I hated the fact that I shared any blood with that beast.”
“I know. That’s why you could relate to the boys in a way I couldn’t. You knew Kaden’s pain of sharing Daughton’s blood and you could help him. You still can.”
“Does he know? Does Jules?”
“I don’t think so. I think you should be the one to tell them that you’re their aunt by blood and not just by love.”
Corinne sat back on the bed next to Olivia. “You really don’t hate me?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions!” Olivia admonished.
“Well, I’m pissed off at you for this stunt, but you can make it up to me.”
“An Oprah marathon?”
“Yes! But you have to wear this.” Corinne reached into her pocket and took out a tiny folded piece of material. She shook it free and revealed a hideous red t-shirt with rainbow- colored beading and stones. The front of the t-shirt said ‘Live, Livy.’ I bought a bedazzler when you were in your coma. Shopping helps. Remember we talked about this shirt and slogan. Now that you nearly died, I think you should wear my t-shirt. It will remind you to keep fighting this drug. Soon you will be better.”
“Maybe I should have jumped after all,” Olivia groaned as she stared and that monstrosity Corinne claimed was a t-shirt. Corinne was so excited by the hideous shirt that Olivia could not help but agree to wear it. “This shirt will provide the incentive I need to get better as soon as possible. Thanks Cori.” Cori helped Olivia put on the shirt, which weighed at least ten pounds.
“It looks perfect. I think I found my calling. I’m going into the t-shirt business. I can sell them on infomercials at night.”
“I’m sure you’ll be a success,” Olivia encouraged. She looked up to see Lucian stride into the room looking as handsome and perfect as ever. He took one look at her shirt and erupted into laughter, falling to the ground.
In between laughing, he asked “What is that ghastly thing? The light from the stones is blinding me. Maybe vampires are sensitive to light after all, especially when it’s as hideous as that dreadful sight.”
Corinne marched up to him and dragged his laughing butt off the floor. “You’re an ass and you have no sense of style. I made that shirt with my new bedazzler.”
“Darling, do the world a favor and burn that thing. For the sake of all immortals, death to the bedazzler.”
“Bastard!” Corinne elbowed him in the chest and Lucian stumbled over to the bed, still laughing.
“You’re so bad. She was very proud of this shirt. You didn’t have to hurt her feelings.”
“Well, she hurt my eyes making me look at this thing.” Olivia slapped him on the shoulder. “Are you actually going to wear this?”
“For now. It will make her happy.”
“You’re a loyal friend. I wouldn’t do that for Lorenzo.”
“You have that mischievous look in your eyes. What are thinking?”
“How nice it would be for Lorenzo to have a shirt like this. Maybe bright yellow to match his eyes? I will suggest that to Corinne.”
“You must. I would pay to see him all bedazzled.” Olivia and Lucian laughed in each other’s arms.
“Cara, there was something I wanted to ask you.” Olivia stiffened in his arms, but he caressed her tenderly until she finally relaxed. Lucian knew she still feared he would leave. One day soon he vowed he would erase that fear, but they needed time to love and trust in that love. “We can stay here if you like, or we can return to Italy. I would gladly give up my seat on the Council and stay here with you forever. I want you to be happy wherever that may be. Your kids are here, as well as Cori, so I understand if you want to stay. I just need to go back and deal with some unfinished business -- starting with my parents -- but then I can come back and we can build a life here or wherever else you want to go.”
“You can’t leave the Council, Lucian. It needs you more than ever. There’s so much that needs to be done. You have to stop others from giving in to mescah the way I did, and you have to help unite all immortals. I know you can make it happen. I trust no one else to do it. We should go to Italy. Amalia can continue to treat me and maybe figure out how to save others based on my recovery. I want to go back home to Italy with you. I want to go back to our home there on the beach and start the life we were always meant to have. I know it won’t be easy there. The past still haunts us, but together we can overcome anything.”
“Together, my love.”
“Always together.” Olivia reached up and pulled his face down to hers, delighting in the taste of this man, her mate.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Olivia needs another transfusion….” Amalia looked up and focused her eyes on Olivia’s shirt, forgetting the rest of her words. She observed the shirt like a new scientific discovery. “Oh no. You’re regressing. The mescah has affected your mind. You’re becoming insane.” Amalia’s serious, concerned expression caused another round of laughter. Amalia stared at Lucian and Olivia like they were crazed lab rats.
“I think we’re both afflicted,” Lucian chuckled.
“Yes we are. It’s called happiness,” Olivia correctly diagnosed, “and I don’t want to be cured.”
Epilogue
Kaden gazed at the midnight sky still searching to make sense of the last two weeks. His mother had nearly been lost to a drug that she willingly consumed to escape the family who had failed her. He knew he was to blame. Despite her words to the contrary, he could not escape the guilt of knowing that it was his life that virtually ended hers.
Yet she fought like the tigress she was to prove his innocence and now he was free. To do what? he wondered, for he lived his life with reckless abandon and with no regard for anyone else. As soon as he opened himself up to care, his best friend Madeira was stolen from him, her life cut short by a vengeful succubus he had left for dead. An evil, obsessive woman who had destroyed every woman who attempted to comfort Kaden and take away the years of torment. A woman who had belonged to his brother first.
As much as he wanted to blame the entire affair with Helena on her manipulation of him by u
sing her powers to seduce him into compliance, he knew the truth. And that truth resulted in a brother who despised him.
He closed his eyes and breathed in the fragrant scent of gardenia with a hint of jasmine. The scent awakened his buried heart and aroused passions in him he never thought it was possible to feel. Reysa. She was close, and his body was already preparing for her arrival. A moment later she appeared in a gust of wind. He felt like a child impatiently waiting for a gift to be revealed. As the wind calmed, unwrapped before him was perfection. Mine.
Kaden tried to squash those possessive thoughts. He could never have her. He would fight his need for her until his last breath, but she would never be his. All he could bring her was pain, and he would rather die than hurt Reysa. She saved his life, and not just by helping to find Helena, but by reawakening his zest to exist.
Thoughts of that passionate kiss they shared still haunted him. It might have been just a ploy to trap Helena, but for him it was an unleashing of a hidden desire. Her taste was the sweetest of delights, a forbidden fruit that he desperately craved. She was standing there in front of him, so close, so magnificent, and so tempting.
Reysa wore a simple pair of blue jeans and a red t-shirt that clung in all the right places and stopped just above her navel, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of her defined abs. Those succulent abs were adorned with a ruby and diamond chain that reached the top of her jeans, teasing him with what delights were waiting underneath those jeans.
Her clothes might not have been elaborate, but she would make a white sheet look sexy. Reysa just exuded sex appeal and Kaden’s body could not help but respond. He hated this need for her, hated her for evoking this desire that would go unfulfilled.
“Why are you here?” he barked at her. His words were sharp enough to cut her, but his eyes could not hide his longing.
Reysa had grown weary of Kaden’s constant grumbling every time she appeared. His moodiness and general unpleasant demeanor were testing her limited patience. For the last week, he either snapped at her or avoided her completely. She thought he still might be angry that she tricked him into that steamy kiss allowing her to become the new target of Helena’s murderous intentions, but she only did it to save him from a sure death for crimes he did not commit. You would think the annoying vampire would be grateful, but Kaden clearly did not do gratitude.
“To say goodbye,” Reysa responded calmly, corralling her growing anger at this gruff vampire she had every reason to hate, but could not convince her heart to detest. It was time for her to leave and return permanently to her family. She needed to get away from this unsettling vampire who threatened to unhinge the tranquility she tried to maintain. Why did the thought of leaving him feel like a desertion of her soul?
Kaden knew that Reysa’s leaving was for the best. Distance would be the only cure for this hunger for her, but he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. “You agreed to continue supplying my mother with your blood. It has helped her. She is still healing. It may be months before she is fully recovered.”
A steady dose of Reysa’s mysterious healing blood, along with Lucian’s, was helping Olivia regain her strength and fight her dependency on mescah. “Your mother is doing much better. In fact, she and Lucian are leaving for Sorrento next week. I’ve left several pints of my blood with Amalia, which should last them for weeks. If your mother needs more I can provide it, but for now I need to go home. This isn’t over for me. Yasmine is still missing. I have to find her and I also have a daughter who needs me, as well as Christian, the Lore and my friends. I don’t belong here and there is no reason for me to stay.”
Part of Kaden wanted to be her reason to stay, but he knew he could not be. She had a daughter. She had Christian. Christian. The thought of that Lycan half-breed made Kaden’s skin crawl. Although Reysa claimed he was her friend only, Kaden resented the way he touched her with such familiarity. They had a deep unbreakable bond, fortified by their role as parents to young Tatiana.
“I guess you should leave,” Kaden woefully acknowledged.
“If you should ever need my help…”
“I won’t,” Kaden cut her off.
Reysa wanted to plant her fist in his face again. No one aggravated her like this obnoxious vampire. “You really are an ass. I shouldn’t have wasted my time helping you.”
“I tried to tell you that, but you refused to listen. I’m not worth it.”
“You could be, but you choose not to be.” Reysa disappeared before Kaden could respond.
Kaden wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. He raced back to the house, hoping to find her before she left for good. As he approached the house, he scented her in Julian’s study, but she was not alone. He initially assumed she was with the jaguar, but no, that was not the other scent. This one was even more familiar.
Julian stood next to Reysa with a heavy backpack on his shoulder. He turned to his brother and smiled.
“Where are you going, Jules?” Kaden’s tone was neutral, but one could not miss the threat in his tone.
Julian was not concerned. “That’s none of your business.”
Kaden turned to face Reysa, who was clutching a small bag. Clearly she was leaving, but did Julian plan to leave with her? Kaden would not allow that to happen.
“Reysa, I need to speak to my little brother alone. Would you give us a minute?” Reysa just stood there looking back and forth between the brothers. “Please Reysa.” Reysa looked to Julian, who nodded in agreement. Kaden seethed. “You need his permission?”
“I need no one’s permission. I can feel the heat of your anger and I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I don’t trust you not to hurt Julian even though you have no reason. You don’t seem to need a reason.”
Kaden was taken aback by that comment. He knew Julian and Reysa had spent some time together this week, but he had not realized that Julian spent most of that time telling Reysa sob stories about his horrible older brother. “Leave now before you give me a reason,” Kaden threatened.
Reysa marched up to Kaden and faced the brooding vampire. His body heated up more, but not from anger. “I don’t take orders from you. I will go, but I won’t be far in case my help is needed.”
“Are you Julian’s bodyguard now?”
“No. I’m yours,” Reysa gently caressed Kaden’s inflamed cheek. “I’m going to protect you from yourself.”
Kaden watched as Reysa dematerialized, leaving the place on his cheek where her warm caress had touched suddenly cold from the loss of her.
“You got it bad for her although you don’t want to admit it,” Julian acknowledged.
Kaden ignored that comment. “Where are you going, Julian?”
“I thought I answered that question already.”
“Not to my satisfaction.” Kaden circled Julian like a predator eying his prey.
“Your satisfaction is all that matters – right, brother?” Julian questioned. “That’s all you’ve ever cared about.”
“No, but I understand why you think that way.” Kaden sat down on Julian’s desk. He knew he could never make things right with Julian, but he needed to say the words he had come to New Paltz to say before all the craziness ensued. “Julian, I came here to find you so that I could tell you how sorry I was for Helena. Not just for Helena. For everything. I know I’ve hurt you and you have every reason to despise me forever. I’m not asking for your forgiveness.”
“Good, because I have none to offer.”
“Fair enough, but if what you have to offer is revenge – then, brother, I urge you to reconsider,” Kaden warned. “I will not let you use Reysa to get to me.”
“I don’t use people, Kaden. That’s your specialty.”
Kaden dismissed the insult. “Reysa is not a pawn in your revenge game.”
“You’re paranoid. I offered to help Reysa find Yasmine. Considering she saved our mother’s life, the least I could do is help her find her friend. If you weren’t such a selfish bastard, you would have offered the same.”<
br />
“Nice try, Jules, but even you’re not that altruistic.”
Julian smiled. “Well, if Reysa wanted to show me her gratitude for my help, then I certainly would not turn her down. She is magnificent and more importantly, unclaimed. Reysa’s fair game.”
Julian was goading Kaden to stake a claim that Kaden would not allow himself to make. “I think her half-breed baby daddy might disagree.”
Julian shrugged nonchalantly. “Christian is no threat. Besides, she’s worth the challenge.”
“Don’t do this, Jules.” Kaden’s body simmered from his fury.
“If you won’t, then I will.”
Kaden shoved Julian to the ground and planted himself on top, not allowing Julian to flee. “I don’t want to hurt you, Julian, but I will if you push me too far.”
“You took my love away. It’s only fair that I take yours. I would certainly treat her better than you treated Helena.”
Kaden squeezed Julian’s throat. “Helena was a malicious whore who never cared about you. She used you. You should thank me for saving you from her.”
“Thank you. Now I can be with someone better, like Reysa.”
Kaden squeezed tighter, but Julian just laughed. “She’s not for you.”
“That never stopped you from taking what you want,” Julian taunted. “Go ahead and snap my neck, Kaden. Mom will hate you and Reysa will surely hate you forever. Let her see the monster you really are. She would never trust you around her child, her family, or her friends. You’ll wind up alone, just the way you deserve.”
Kaden relaxed his hand just as Reysa appeared with her sword, ready to strike. “What’s going on here?” Reysa demanded.
Lover's Betrayal: Misfits of the Lore Series Page 27