“Before I start, I want to ask you if you’ve done anything to ward the house.”
“I have. And I dipped into the darker arts when I cast Agares out, so he’ll be gone tonight.” Hellion looked at Bahlin and there seemed to be some unspoken communication between them. “Bahlin and I were trying to figure out why you intervened in the, uh, disagreement between us and Micah, Maddy.”
Bahlin was silent. Apparently Hellion had drawn the short straw in broaching this conversation.
I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable at being put on the spot. The whole topic of Micah was too raw, and I suddenly wished I’d not insisted on telling both Hellion and Bahlin at the same time. Rubbing the back of my neck, I avoided looking at either man as I answered. “Any extreme emotion from the Nephilim acts as a beacon for the Dominae, remember?”
“Shit. I completely forgot.” Bahlin shook his head, one corner of his mouth curling. “I need flashcards to keep up with all the weird shit that’s been happening lately.”
Hellion snorted. “Those would be handy. Maybe we could come up with a pocket guide with the rules of the Nephilim on one side and those for the Dominae on the other.” Both men chuckled. “We’ve essentially guaranteed we’ll have another visitor tonight since we lit Micah up.”
I twitched once, hard, but no one noticed. It seemed more than ironic that he’d used the exact same terminology as I had when I’d threatened Micah with that very thing earlier today.
Hellion bounced his head off the headrest a few times before turning to face me. “Fine. We’ll be prepared. Darius can bring in some people to help.”
“Why don’t we go to Ireland so we’re not surrounded by mundanes?” I asked. “The neighbors are more than nosey at this point, and things are only going to get weirder. It’ll also at least confuse the Dominae that come here looking for him.”
“Excellent point. I’ll have Micah move a few people. Darius can station a few of his voyyen here and fly the others we’ll need over to Ireland,” Hellion said almost to himself.
“Fly? Can vampires fly?” Would this shit ever seem normal? In a way I hoped not, but forever was a long time to live as the lone naïve immortal.
“No, vampires can’t fly,” Bahlin said, rubbing his upper lip hard and unsuccessfully hiding a smile. “Darius is a pilot and owns a small Leer.”
I blushed and shrugged. “Oops.”
“No harm.” Hellion mirrored Bahlin’s grin, and I wanted nothing more than to keep the goodwill flowing. Wasn’t happening.
The magus grabbed a phone and called down to the basement. “Darius? Yeah. He’s there?” Hellion paused then laughed. “Good. Glad you enjoyed the vintage. Look, can you gather about twenty or twenty-five skilled fighters and get them to the Ireland house as soon as possible? I’ll need another six or eight here to offer the staff support in the face of unwelcome visitors. I’ll ask that your people don’t eat the neighbors to the west. The eastern set is entirely negotiable.” He smiled wider at Darius’s response. Hellion ran his free hand through his hair, pushing it from his face. “Thanks, mate. The sooner, the better. I’ll be sending a few of my people to the airport for a lift too. I imagine we’ll get a visit from one of Agares’s professional acquaintances tonight, and we need to take the fight from London. Uh huh. Regarding the demon, can you also do me a favor?” This time Darius’s response made Hellion chuckle. “It’ll never happen, but I’ll tell her. I need you to start calling any of your contacts familiar with demonology, see what they know about permanently casting a demon out. Yeah. Okay. See you there in under two.” He redialed, saying to Bahlin and me, “Give me just another second.”
Understanding what he was doing, Bahlin motioned for Hellion’s cell and started making some calls of his own.
Hellion’s call connected. “Stearns? Yeah, listen. I need you to call Giff and ask him to start calling around to the other coven masters and find out if anyone has an expert on demonology. I need to talk to them if they do.” He pinched the bridge of his nose as Stearns answered. No smiles from this front. “That’s fine. Give them my personal mobile number and tell them to call any time, collect if necessary.
“I also need you to gather the appropriate staff to manage the house for a few days while repairs are made. Also, contact my top twenty-five people. We’re all going to the Ireland house, including you and Mark. You’ll need to coordinate with Darius to get to the airport within the hour. He’ll be leaving half a dozen of his people here for defensive support.” Hellion offered me a small smile. “Yeah. See you then.”
He hung up. While we waited on Bahlin to get off the phone, Hellion entertained himself by playing with my hair and stroking my head.
I leaned into his touch. A shuddering sigh escaped me.
He cupped the back of my head. “Hey. It can’t be all that bad.”
“Promise me you won’t leave me.”
Pausing for the briefest second, he pressed a kiss to the crown of my head before he resumed petting. “Never.”
“You’ll never promise or you’ll never leave me?” I whispered, looking up at him.
“It will be a cold day in hell before I leave you, síorghrá.”
The lump parked in my throat made it impossible to respond.
Bahlin ended his call and tossed the phone back to Hellion. “I’ll have a dozen dragons in Ireland not long after we arrive.”
“Thanks,” Hellion said, tipping his head to the other man.
Bahlin slouched down in the chair and looked me over. “So what’s up, Maddy?”
Scrambling for stall tactics, I looked at Hellion. “What did Darius say when you laughed and told me you’d tell me?”
Hellion grinned. “He said he’d do anything for you if you’d promise to throw me over, run away with him and bear him a dozen children.” The men chuckled and Bahlin said something like, “Yeah, right,” but I couldn’t hear anything clearly over the loud rushing sound in my ears.
Glancing around the room, I was desperate to find something to look at besides the men. Tremors raced through my fine muscles and settled in my hands. Breaths came harder—short, panting gasps I couldn’t control.
Hellion reached for me.
My stomach rebelled. Rocketing to my feet, I sprinted for the bathroom. I barely made it.
Slow footsteps followed me in. Water ran in the sink and a cool rag was pressed to the back of my neck.
Hot tears dripped off the tip of my nose.
Holding the rag gently in place, Hellion knelt down beside me. “Whatever it is, a mhuirnín, we’ll manage it together.”
My laughter was strangled by a sob. “I hope you mean that.”
“I do. No matter what it is, I do.”
“Maddy?” Bahlin called from the doorway. “You okay?”
“Let me wash my face and brush my teeth before I meet you guys in the bedroom.”
Hellion kissed my shoulder and handed me the rag.
This just wasn’t getting any easier.
Hellion and Bahlin were discussing Agares when I walked back into the sitting area. They looked up at the same time.
Hellion rose, reaching out and wrapping me in a hug. When he released me, Bahlin was right there.
“I’d like to offer you comfort as well, Maddy,” he said softly.
I nodded and gave him a brief, hard hug. He smelled like rich night air and open spaces, familiar and comforting, and I relaxed in his embrace. Then I realized my mistake. If Bahlin had been able to scent me across the room, proximity mandated he was being overwhelmed with the pheromones. If I didn’t spell this out, and fast, it would give him the wrong idea.
I patted his back awkwardly and tried to pull away from him.
He was reluctant to let me go.
Pushing against his chest, elbowing him in the gut and stomping his foot proved ineffective. It was hard to fight against someone you weren’t committed to hurting, and I really didn’t want to hurt him. I’d done enough of that already.
Bahlin d
id nothing but readjust his grip and move his feet out to get a wider stance.
I had to wonder if his indifference to my obvious protests might provoke me to more violent attempts. It held a certain undeniable appeal.
“Dragon, you need to get your hands off my woman. Now.” Hellion’s low voice held no room for compromise.
Bahlin let out a prehistoric growl, and smoke leaked from his nose.
In response, Hellion stood up and began unbuttoning his shirt.
Shit. “Don’t make me take my shirt off again!” I shouted.
Both of them started and looked at me for a long, stagnant moment.
“Bahlin, get your damned hands off me before you ruin whatever’s left between us,” I snarled.
He never took his eyes from me though he dropped his hands.
Adjusting my shirt, I refused to look at him. “Thank you. Now sit your scaly ass down and stop pushing people’s buttons.”
I wonder if pet stores here carry those “Ten Simple Steps for Training Your New Whatever-you-have” books. I could get one for dragons. I could pick up one of those and a super extra-large shock collar with long-distance remote control. Visions of shocking the shit out of Bahlin made me smile. Reigning in my runaway imagination, I launched myself back into the moment.
Stepping around Bahlin, I moved closer to Hellion and gestured to the sofa. “Sit. Please.” I followed him down. “You guys need to know everything that happened between Micah and me when he popped us out of the house earlier, but you can’t tell anyone.”
Both men sat up straighter at the same time I realized how that might be interpreted.
“No! No, not that. What do you take me for? I meant the discussion. Between us. The discussion Micah and I had.” I shook my head. “When he teleported me to wherever we were in London—” and I had always assumed it was London, “—we had an argument after he spelled out very clearly what my future holds and the decisions I have left to make.”
Very slowly and with as much clinical dispassion as I could muster, I relayed nearly word for word what the fallen angel had said. Both men were silent but not still. One clenched his jaw while the other ground his teeth. One’s body was tense while the other worked to control fine tremors in the small muscles of his hands. One began to shake his head in denial as the other took on a look of resolution.
I came to the part where Micah had enthusiastically kissed me—should I have kept that to myself?—and Hellion surged off the sofa, cursing the Nephilim with creative vehemence. He stormed around the room, his energy both renewed and empowered by his rage.
Bahlin, however, was as still as old death.
Hellion made his way back to the sitting area and leaned in close to me, gently grasping my chin so I couldn’t turn away. His pupils had eaten the whites of his eyes and the fathomless black depths eddied with power. “No,” he said softly. “I’ll no’ run the risk o’ ye being raped by some crazed creature an’ bein’ impregnated an’ taken from me. Fate will no’ do this tae ye, tae me, tae us an’ what we’ve started together.”
I closed my eyes and grasped his wrist, shifting his hand so I could rest my cheek against his palm. “I don’t want this either. I don’t, Hellion.”
Kissing my forehead, he released me and turned to Bahlin. “I apologize, Bahlin, for what this may cost ye personally, but I won’t let this happen. I can’t lose her. I won’t lose her. No matter what.”
The dragon continued to stare at me during Hellion’s rant, his face devoid of any emotion. If eyes were truly the windows to one’s soul, these shades were drawn.
Taking a deep breath and blowing it out hard, Hellion waffled between touching me and not touching me, finally going back to the bathroom to get yet another cool rag I could lay across the back of my neck as I tried to control my breathing. I thanked him and patted the sofa next to me.
He sat as if I were fragile.
Bahlin still stared.
I wasn’t sure whose reaction was scarier, but I believed Hellion’s was more sincere while Bahlin’s was more calculated. Sincerity I could count on. Calculation was a lying bitch. On impulse, I turned to Hellion. “Do you trust me?”
“Withou’ a doubt.”
“Give me five minutes alone with Bahlin.”
He balked, shaking his head. “I canna risk it.”
“Please.”
“But the hormones, yers and his both. Mo chroí, it’s no’ tha’ I don’ trust ye, but ye’ve had such strong feelings fer each other.” He paused and looked down, seeming to search for the right words. He didn’t raise his head to look at me when he said, “He loves ye, Maddy.”
“I do,” Bahlin said in a soft, controlled voice. “And if you think I’d ever do anything she didn’t wish me to do, you’re not half so bright as I’ve credited you with being.”
Hellion whipped his head around and stared at the other man. “Less than thirty minutes ago ye didna want tae let her go.” Sighing, he rubbed he temples with his thumb and middle finger. “Doona ye get it, man? That’s joost it. She may think she wants it tae be so if the hormones are influencing her unjoostly. I canna leave her tae Fate’s fickle whim.”
I reached out and touched Hellion’s hand.
He closed his eyes. “Maddy, please.”
“I need five minutes, but I’m not unreasonable. Go to the bathroom and shut the door. You’ll hear if anything… If anything happens, you’ll hear it. Then you’ll be able to put a stop to it.”
“It would come tae serious blows between me an’ the dragon. Ye understand this?”
“I do.”
He stood and drew me to my feet. “I’ll ask ye for five minutes o’ my own when ye’re doon with him.”
“Will I get to hide in the bathroom and eavesdrop?” Bahlin snarked.
Squeezing Hellion’s hands before he could reply, I said, “Five minutes.”
He gave a curt nod and walked to the bathroom. Despite the emotional assault, he shut the door gently.
I sat across from Bahlin, unsure how to say what clearly needed to be said.
He took care of it for me. “What does this mean for us, Maddy?” His deep voice settled around me with comfortable familiarity. He drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes, and when he re-opened them I wasn’t surprised they’d changed to icy blue.
“Beyond a fiercely loyal friendship and unending affection, there is no ‘us,’ Bahlin. I respect the fact that you love me, and a small part of me will always belong to you. Hellion knows this. It’s not a secret.” Meeting his gaze was harder than I thought it would be. “Bahlin, the vast majority of my heart is his. No prophecy, no threat and no fallen angel will change that. As much as I care for you, I love him.” The need to apologize for my feelings was overwhelming, but I wouldn’t offer Bahlin any false hopes about us.
“If you had the opportunity to do it all over again, would you make the same decision?”
I was sure he was referring to the night in Hyde Park only days ago. I nodded slowly. “Even if there was a way to turn back time, Bahlin, I’d still end up with Hellion.”
“Are you happy, then? Truly and incomparably happy, I mean.”
He sounded almost desperate for me to say no, but I wouldn’t lie to him. “I am, Bay.” He winced at my use of the easy endearment and I held up a hand. “You’ll always be my ‘Bay,’ and I can’t promise to stop calling you that.”
He nodded. “If you’re truly happy, Maddy, and this is the life you want, I’ll respect it. But I’ll be here if you ever change your mind, grá mo chroí.”
“I know,” I whispered. He stood and stepped up to me, pulling me to my feet and straight into his arms.
He kissed me very gently and then whispered into my hair, “I never deserved you, Madeleine Niteclif.”
“We just met at the wrong time, Bahlin, in the wrong lifetime.”
“Yeah.” He shifted and slung his arm over my shoulder and called out for Hellion.
Hellion walked into the room, clearly havin
g gained control of his emotions. His eyes were back to normal and he smiled a little as he approached us. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah.” I closed my eyes for the briefest second. “We’re good.”
Hellion held his hand out to me and I went to him, sliding under his arm in a practiced movement.
Bahlin nodded and said, “I’m going to leave you two to talk while I round everyone up. What do you want me to do with Micah?” He looked at me, but the question was clearly directed to Hellion.
“I don’t want him alone with her.” Hellion tightened his arm around me. “In fact, I don’t really want her alone with any but Darius or me…or you. We’ll meet in Ireland as planned. Ask the coven members downstairs to start warding preparations as soon as they’re at the manor house. Stearns should join in the warding, but Mark needs to sit out. He’s not strong enough yet for what needs to be done. I’ll seal everything when I get there with Maddy. We have to be prepared for anything. Micah’s beacon may have flared, so it’s safer to assume something’s coming.”
Bahlin hooked his hands in the pockets of the borrowed jeans and they rode lower on his hips, reminding me he was a commando fan just as Hellion was. I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to think of anything but the way the two men in this room looked when they were sans clothing. Yum.
“Maddy?” Bahlin asked.
“What?” I jumped, his address drawing me away from dangerous ménage fantasies that were far removed from my normal comfort zone. I was fast developing a new appreciation for what these hormones could do to me.
“I was asking why we couldn’t just let the demon have Micah. Why are we going so far out of our way to protect him?”
“I suppose it’s for the sake of his soul, but honestly? It’s the right thing to do. I won’t turn anyone away who comes to me looking for true justice.”
“But what if the requestor transfers the threat to you through association?” Bahlin insisted.
“Bahlin,” I said on a sigh. “You’ve spent lifetimes with former Niteclifs. You know this is how it works.”
Turning to Hellion, he said, “Surely you see where this is going? Every night she spends near Heaven’s resident reject, she’s bait. I don’t like it.”
Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 Page 12