by Honor James
“Oh really? What sort of rules?” She was leery now of what he would tell her she had to do in order to gain this gift. “Do you mean, like, not jumping your bones? If you tell me I’m no longer allowed to sleep with you, I will hit you and just live with my illness for the rest of time.”
He shook his head, a small grin on his lips. “No little mate, nothing like that. You will be on a very strict diet, you will eat at very specific times, and you will sleep a certain number of hours every day. You also will not be able to deviate from the meal plan, no matter what I make you eat. And no, nothing nasty or bizarre, but some of it may be boring. You ready to put up with that for at least a week, maybe longer?”
“As long as it’s nothing nasty or totally weird. Bland and boring I can do, but weird and freaky I can’t.” Her face instantly blushed as she realized she would do “weird and freaky,” just not with food. “Sorry, that was so totally out of the blue. Yes, I will do whatever it takes in order be able to be rid of this disease so that I can have a long and happy life with you two.”
“It will be relatively mild, bland, and boring. We need to control your salt, sugar, spice, butter, and other wonderful cooking elements fully. But we will grill and steam what we can. I don’t want you ready to revolt after one meal, but—” He gave a shrug. “I also don’t want you clueless as to what it will all entail. Now, let’s go inside. We’ll make dinner and wait on Gav. We still need to discuss everything with him anyway before we can even get started. And with the trouble with his mother, now may not be the time to start this.”
“Is he okay?” Lilly asked softly. “I haven’t heard anything from him, and I’m honestly more than a little worried for him. Is his mom okay? Are you sure that you guys have time to worry about me with his mom being as bad off as she is? Shouldn’t his focus be with her?”
“Lilly.” He leaned in closer. “Take a breath and let it out. Inside, please. We need to feed you, and then we will work the rest of it out.” He got out of the car and came around to her side. Pulling open the door, he held out a hand to her.
Her hand moved to his easily, trustingly. “Thank you,” she whispered with a smile. “All right, we will worry about the here and now. I’m sorry I just kind of wigged out a little. I’m being utterly selfish, when he’s got his hands full right now. I feel terrible for that. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t do that, Lilly,” he said. Shutting the car door, he pressed her back to the side of the vehicle. “This is your life, too, darling. You deserve to have the occasional selfish moment. Besides, you are our mate and we will pretty much cater to your every wish.”
Moving to wrap her arms around his neck, Lilly pulled him closer. Pressing her cheek to the side of his neck, she rubbed her cheek to his neck and sighed. “I would do anything for you as well. Anything. I just hate thinking that I’m the reason he’s not getting as much time with his mom as he deserves to have.”
“Lilly.” His arms came around her. “Gavriel is ancient and lived his entire life under his mother’s care. Until the Veil fell, he pretty much catered to her every whim. I got him out of there when I could so he’d have a break, but he always went back. Since the Veil, he’s lived on his own, relatively speaking of course, which would be the very first time.”
“Are you sure?” she asked softly. “I can’t and I won’t come between a son and his mother. That’s such an impossibly strong bond. I want to be a part of his life, I need to be a part of his life, but not if it means that he will not be able to give her the care that she needs as well.” She even confused herself with her statement, and he could see it on her face.
Pressing a kiss to her cheek, Artaxias drew back. Grabbing up her hand he pulled her, gently of course, toward the house. Inside, he leaned back against the door. “Lilly, you are his mate and he is yours. Yes, there will be days that Gav needs to deal with his mother and other things at that end. But it’s not all the time and, hopefully, he will figure out a way to keep her safe, keep her from annoying me, and therefore keep me from giving into the urge to kill her.”
That had Lilly grinning, “And there is no way to block her from getting your frequency? Oh God, wait. What about when she meets me? Will she want to constantly contact me as well, or will I be lost to her memories on the bad days?” Not that she would mind, honestly, Lilly had never really had family, and she wanted a family, but she just didn’t know how to act around them.
“Unless Gavriel has her link permanently disabled, unless it’s a life-threatening emergency, then no, there’s no way to block her from calling me. As to the rest, don’t know. She unfortunately remembers me too much, even on her bad days. Or maybe I should say especially on her bad days. On those days, she seems to revert to an early time, but only a certain time. She then seems to think I’ve got Gavriel out carousing and whoring, as she so quaintly puts it. Gotta say, for such a lady when she’s perfectly fine, she’s got a sailor’s mouth on her when she’s not all there.”
“Oh, that’s terrible. That poor man,” Lilly whispered. “Both of you, really. I’m sure that you all had amazing times when she wasn’t suffering from whatever this is that is affecting her now. Bless her heart, she likely thinks that she’s done something wrong or, well, I don’t know. I don’t know why I’m making assumptions, because they only are just that, assumptions. I can’t even begin to imagine how she’s feeling.”
“Look, I know this is a little overwhelming, Lilly. We will go and see her when she’s a little more stable and you can meet her. She can meet you and we will go from there. For now, love, take a deep breath and relax. Let’s go and get you something to eat so that your blood sugar doesn’t go all wonky on us. I do not want to be worrying about you as well.”
“Right, yes, let’s do that so that I’m not giving you more issues,” she said softly. “That’s the very last thing I want to do, give you troubles.” Looking up at him, she smiled and nodded. “All right, you and I will go and do this. We will ensure that I eat properly and hopefully one day I will get to meet Gavriel’s mom, and I really hope she likes me.” That was a huge fear of Lilly’s, that the woman wouldn’t like her.
“She will adore you,” he said quietly. He pushed off the door and moved toward her. Sliding an arm around her waist, he guided her toward the kitchen. “She will likely grill you intensively, but just remember, she does it because she’s a mother. Apparently, some worry about their children and only want what’s best for them. Personally, I have no grasp of this concept, but I have seen the phenomenon on occasion.”
“I certainly hope that she will,” Lilly said with a smile and then shook her head. “No matter how old a child gets, their mother will always worry for them, especially if they are an only child. At least that’s what I’ve gathered over the years. When someone is an only child, they are even more precious, or something like that.”
“As I said, I wouldn’t know. I will take your word on the matter. Sit.” He pointed to a stool at the counter. “Is a sandwich all right? I have some roast beef that I did up the other night. You can have it hot or cold, ladies’ choice.”
“A sandwich sounds perfect to me. You are totally going to spoil me. You feed me such amazing food, you give me so much. I think that I’m very much going to love being your mate.” He was such a contradiction, one she loved.
Shrugging, he smiled slightly. “I don’t mind doing such things for you. It gives me something to do outside of the job, besides sharpening my weapons and keeping myself honed to the finely tuned machine that I am.”
That had her snickering and she shook her head. “Well, you should always keep your weapons well cared for, but you really should take better care of me, so I approve this way of thinking,” Lilly said with a grin. “And you are a very highly tuned machine, one that makes me lick my lips.”
Snorting at her words, he dug out the fixings for the sandwich. “You never did give me your preference. Hot or cold sandwich?” he asked, holding up the plate of roast beef. “And what do you
want on either option.”
“Cold is perfectly fine with me, and the roast beef looks utterly delicious, so I’m all in on it.” Lilly’s stomach growled at the thought. “So yes please, roast beef, pickle on the side , and some water. No fruit or anything else. Just the sandwich and pickle please.”
“Can do. Anything in particular you’d like on the sandwich?” He grabbed a board and knife. He set the beef on the board and began to slice it thin. “Cheese, lettuce, onion, something else maybe. Mayo and mustard, mayo or mustard.” He looked to her.
“I think that I will take mustard, no cheese, no onions, maybe a bit of lettuce if you have romaine lettuce?” she asked with a smile. “I much prefer it to anything else at all. I’m not big on onions because I don’t like onion breath, and I totally want kisses later, so that’s another reason not to have onions, yes?”
“You may have heard, they have this revolutionary invention for such things as onion breath.” Artaxias went to the fridge and dug around before returning to the counter and continuing. “It’s called toothpaste. And it’s even got a complimentary friend that goes with it, mouthwash.”
Unable to help herself, Lilly began to laugh. She snorted once or twice as well. “Oh God, that’s too funny,” she said happily. “I love it. Well, still. I want to be able to kiss you on the fly, should I happen to want to, and not have to run for the bathroom to brush my teeth beforehand, please.”
“Excuses, excuses,” he muttered. But he did shoot her a crooked grin. Then his attention returned to the sandwich he was putting together. A couple minutes later he handed her the plate and a bottle of water. “Eat up,” he ordered before turning away to clean up his mess.
Taking the first bite of the sandwich, she hummed in pure happiness. A sigh escaped her lips and she all but danced in her seat. “So good,” she moaned happily and licked her lips. “Have I mentioned to you what an amazing cook you are? If not, let me remedy that. You, my dear man, are an amazing cook and I swear I will gain ten pounds by the end of the month, eating as I do.”
“It’s a sandwich, Lilly, it’s not exactly rocket science, darling. Now, making the perfect duck l’orange, that’s rocket science with a splash of magic just for kicks. But a sandwich”—he shook his head—“not so much. I’m glad you’re enjoying it though.”
“Oh, you are totally making me drool here. You can’t talk about food to someone that is soon going to be on a very strict diet, it’s cruel,” she teased with a grin. “But again, I’m very happy that you know how to cook and are willing to take such good care of me.”
“Darling, just because you will be on a strict diet doesn’t mean it won’t taste amazing. I know what I’m doing. If you hadn’t figured that out yet, of course.” He shot her a look. “Had you figured that out already, or not?”
“Oh, I have noticed that you are very, very good at what you do. You are truly amazing, Artaxias, and that’s why I’m not running full tilt from you right now.” She winked at him, and he knew she was teasing with him. “Besides, I need at least a couple of lifetimes to experience all of the foods you have to show me. Feed me.”
“I’ll always feed you Lil, promise.” He wiped down the counter and then, grabbing himself a water, walked to the table to join her. “Tomorrow we will need to head into the office and try and figure out what exactly that tattoo involves. I have Briar going over the ink right now, to see if there’s anything particular. Mark in IT is doing a scan of it and picking it apart, symbol by symbol. He’s looking at the pattern to see if there’s something beyond it. Hopefully we’ll be able to look at the pieces and find out what about it sets you off.”
“I certainly hope so, because I really dislike being completely outside of myself like that. I never want that again, if you wouldn’t mind. I really enjoy being able to make my own conscious decisions, and when we find whoever did this to me”—she looked at him so that he could see the honesty in her eyes—“I want them to pay. Dearly.”
“They will. No matter what, they will pay.” Reaching over, he took her hand and gave it a squeeze before letting go. “But we need to narrow down what is setting you off. If we can break the tattoo into its basic components and then piece it together until you react, hopefully we will find a clue in it all.”
“That sounds like a good idea. At least we know which tattoo it is so we can start from there, breaking it apart and all that fun stuff. We will do whatever it is that we must so that we can get these asshats who think they can get away with killing people while we are around.” Or something like that. Yeah!
“Mark should have it broken into components tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll also know from Briar how it was put together, all at once or in pieces. And what was used to create it. That ink isn’t normal, I’ve never seen tattoo ink like that.”
“So, you are thinking that it’s some kind of magically spelled ink from the other side, maybe? But why would they do that? Who could have known that I was coming here? Why create the spell just for me? Or do you think that perhaps there are others out there that would react the same way?” she asked with wide eyes.
“Lilly, take a breath. It may not be for you, or rather, not only for you. There may be others affected by this, and those tattoos are ways of controlling the ones under the spell or suggestion or whatever the hell this is. There are likely others out there with the tattoos. There are likely others out there like you, innocent victims being used by someone to gather information. We need to figure out how you’re being controlled, how the suggestion works, and stop it. Once we do that, we can release you from the suggestion, figure out the person or people behind this, and stop them. Getting you, and any others in the same position, justice.”
“I look forward to that a great deal. Being released would be wonderful, because I’ve a whole life to plan out with two men that I care a great deal about in such a short timeframe. I can’t very well do that if I have to be here and away from all of the action because of some suggestive tattoos that make me want to call someone.”
“Exactly.” He nodded. “The only suggestive tattoos you should be looking at are any your mates might have on them. Other than that, no others. We’ll stop all this so that you can enjoy your life with your mates. One way or another, we’ll stop this.”
“I know. I have faith in you.” Leaning on her elbows, she watched him and then grinned. “So do you? Have any suggestive tattoos, that is? If so, can I see them? I would really like to see far more of you, and if you do have tattoos, what they symbolize to you.”
“I have no others beyond the mating mark. I’ve never felt the need to get any tattoos. Though, I’m sure you could talk me into a couple. As long as they are tasteful, of course. The process necessary for any of the races to have a tattoo is a little more involved than for a human.”
That had her smiling and she shook her head, “They aren’t necessary. I actually kind of really like that the only mark on your body is the one that represents me. I need to get one for each of my guys, however. What do you think of that?”
“Marring your flesh for us is unnecessary Lilly, as you well know. We love you just as you are. But if you want to get something, I won’t argue too much. It is your body, after all,” he said with a smile. “But don’t get anything too extravagant, darling.”
“That was not my intention, to go to over-the-top. I would like something, however. Something to show the world that I am loved by not one, but two men, and I love them back.” Well, at least she was sure she would love them both back. She already had intense feelings for Ax, but she hadn’t spent a great deal of time with Gav, sadly.
“He’ll be home soon,” Artaxias told her. He reached out again for her hand and squeezed. “You will get to spend time with him and get to know him as well. Try not to worry so much, Lil, it makes your forehead wrinkle in a most disturbing manner.”
“Gee, thanks.” She snorted and then added, “And how do you read me so well? Is it the mind reading thing you do, or do you just know me tha
t well?” At this point, she wouldn’t be surprised with either answer, honestly.
“A little of both. You occasionally project your thoughts. Especially if you’re worrying or upset. Plus, I would like to believe that I’m starting to learn you a bit. Not as I hope to know you in the future, but”—he shrugged—“I think I know you a little.”
“I think that you do as well, and it makes me all kinds of happy. I happen to really and truly adore you as well, and I’m very happy that you are mine. You make me happy and I really hope that I can make you happy as well. I think that together we will all be able to do this. Somehow and some way we will figure out our course in life, right?”
“Of course we will.” He gave her a genuine smile. Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to her fingers and let her have her hand back once more. “Finish your meal, and then we can go sit in the other room. Get comfortable and relax. Hopefully we’ll hear something from Gavriel sooner rather than later.”
“I hope so as well. I hate thinking that he is out there without us to back him up. I need to be there for him, I want to be there for him and yet can’t be. I think that is what is bothering me more than anything at all. The fact that I can’t be there for him when he’s been there for me.”
“You will be there for him when he comes home. That’s when he’ll need you most, Lilly. Not now, while he’s dealing with everything and everyone. Not while he’s being bombarded with questions and demands. But when he slows down, pauses, and everything hits him, that’s truly when you being his mate will come into play. Being there for him when he’s overwhelmed by thoughts and memories.”
“I certainly hope so. I hope that he will turn to me,” she whispered with a sigh. “I truly do. I want to be able to be the one that he leans on. I want to be the one that he turns to in all things, I truly do. I want him to lean on us. Not just me, but you and me.”