by Aliya DalRae
Merlin shook his head. The guy was just trying to help. “No, that’s okay,” he said. “Apologies.”
“Not necessary, my friend. We’re here for you, but I always take away positive vibes whenever I help someone. Plus, it allows me the chance to get in touch with my gift.”
“No need to explain.”
“Okay. If you change your mind, let me know. Now, give me your hands.”
Merlin held them out between them, his palms up, and Tas grasped his wrists, laid his own in Merlin’s hands. Instantly, a sense of calm washed through him, Tas working his mojo. He let the sensations wash over him as he tried to clear his mind of anything distressing.
He pushed away thoughts of Kioshi, even though his lover lived in every aspect of this room. It was okay, though, because… he wasn’t really sure why, he just knew that it was.
Tas rubbed his thumbs over Merlin’s wrists, murmured something under his breath, and that tranquility wrapped around him like a blanket, holding him close, protecting him from the evils they both knew filled the world. But that didn’t matter, because here, in this room, in Kioshi’s arms, he was safe.
Merlin shook his head. Where the hell did that come from?
“It’s fine,” Tas said in that soft, low voice. “Let your thoughts go where they will. Who were you thinking of just then?”
“Kioshi,” Merlin answered, surprised at his frank honesty.
“This is Kioshi’s room,” Tas whispered. A statement, not a question.
“Hai.”
“There’s a story here, I can feel it.”
Sweat broke out on Merlin’s upper lip, despite the suite being relatively cool.
“Easy, Merlin. You’re safe here. And I don’t need to know.”
“Thank you.” Merlin bowed his head and Tas responded in kind.
“Is Kioshi the reason you’ve lost control of the Shade?”
Merlin subconsciously pulled his arms toward him, a move designed to protect, but Tas tightened his grip and repeated the question.
“Is Kioshi why you can’t control the Shade?”
Shame bowed Merlin’s head as he answered. “Yes and no.” The cuffs began to warm his wrists as the Shade reached out for him. He closed his eyes and pushed at the force.
“Hmm,” Tas murmured. “That was interesting. The cuffs are cooling again. Are you back in control?”
“I am,” Merlin opened his eyes, locking in with the sea green of Tas’s. Aquamarine light swirled in the other Warrior’s irises, and Merlin found himself hypnotized by the soothing colors.
“Yes and no,” Tas said. “So Kioshi is part of it, Martin is the other.”
“Yes.”
“Do you love him?”
Merlin shifted on his cushion. “Which one?”
“Both? Either.”
“Hai. Yes.”
“Both then.”
“Yes.”
“This room is a memorial, is it not? To Kioshi?”
“Yes.”
“So, the male is dead?”
Merlin began to shake, tried once more to pull his hands away, but Tas held fast. An extra jolt of peace shot through him, and the tremors steadied.
“Can you tell me?” Tas whispered.
Merlin took several deep breaths as the cuffs once again warmed his wrists. He pushed the Shade down again, more easily this time, but when he tried to respond, he couldn’t form the words.
“You said you had nightmares,” Tas changed direction. “About Kioshi’s death then?”
Merlin exhaled. “Yes.”
“And when did they start? When you met Martin?”
“Yes.” Merlin fought to keep the images from filling his mind’s eye. He pushed away the blood, the tantou, the cold stare of his lover’s dead eyes. In their place, another vision appeared. A tall, blond male, with broad shoulders and an aristocratic nose. As Tas filled him with his calming power, Merlin relaxed, embracing the picture and the emotions it evoked. Martin, strong and beautiful, leaning down to kiss him. He allowed himself one moment of pleasure at the memory, then shut it down.
Tas jerked his head up and looked a question at Merlin.
Merlin lowered his eyes, and Tas squeezed his forearms once before releasing them. “We’ll work on that,” he said, and got to his feet.
It took Merlin a bit longer to stand, the effects of Tas’s powers leaving him relaxed and a bit wobbly, despite the intense nature of their conversation. When he finally gained his feet, he joined Tas at Kioshi’s shrine. Merlin knew instantly what had drawn the other Warrior’s attention. The tantou’s handle was ivory with mother of pearl inlays, but that wouldn’t be what had drawn Tas’s eye. It was the rusty stain covering most of the decoration that he studied, and when he looked up, Merlin saw understanding in those sea green depths.
To his credit, Tas didn’t say a word about any of it, just meandered toward the door.
“You did well,” he said, but Merlin doubted the words, if not his sincerity. “How do you feel?”
Merlin thought for a moment, then answered honestly. “Better.”
“We’ll do this again, then.” Tas said. “May I ask a question?”
Strange, Merlin thought, to request permission since he’d asked so many questions already tonight.
But he answered, “Of course,” because that seemed to be important to Tas.
“What will you do about Martin?”
Merlin felt an invisible fist clutch around his heart, pushing at the peace he’d only just gained. He looked at Tas and said, “I will do the only thing I can to keep us all safe. I will continue to push him away.”
Tas studied him a moment, his eyes soft with compassion. He nodded once, then let himself out.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
S asha blew out a frustrated breath and returned the cuff to the velvet cloth next to its mate. She pushed away from the work table Viper had been kind enough to designate as hers, temporarily of course, and folded her arms. There had to be something, anything that would help her solve the mystery of these blasted cuffs, but after four very long days, she continued to come up empty.
Once Mason and the others explained to her the predicament they were in concerning the Kurai Senshi, she didn’t hesitate to agree to provide whatever assistance she could. Considering it was family magic that made the cuffs work, she thought it would be easy to manipulate them. That meant her time spent with the surly Vampire at the table across from her would be over and done with in a day, tops, but the magic fought her at every turn.
They’d determined the ones Merlin wore were sufficient, provided his dealings with the Shade didn’t go beyond nightmares and normal day to day frustrations. However, with his admission that his emotional levels were unsteady at best, Viper insisted that they continue to work until they found a way to contain the Shade within them completely.
“What?” Viper sat facing her, an array of light bulbs laid out in two rows on a velvet cloth similar to the one she used. When she’d asked what he was doing, he’d told her to worry about her own work. His actual words were, “Mind your own trough.” This required an explanation, which he begrudgingly delivered on a low growl along with assurances that he’d let her know when he needed her help.
The Warrior was busy during the overnight hours training Soldiers to fight in the dark, so the work he did with her had to take place while the others were asleep. It seemed the green-eyed male required little rest of his own, so she joined him in his lab bright and early each day, as he commanded. This dispelled her assumption that she would have to change her own sleeping habits to match that of the Vampires’ again. Still, she found it difficult to rest while the entire household went about their nightly routines. This usually resulted in her working well into the early morning hours only to return to the lab at the appointed time.
Each day they worked in near silence, not only to improve the concealment powers of the cuffs, but on anything else Lord Viper deemed necessary. Other than telling her to c
ontinue where she’d left off the previous day, his one-word query was the first he’d spoken to her since she’d walked in several hours before.
She studied the cuffs in front of her, one of several sets Viper had in the larger of the storage cabinets that lined the room. For practice, he’d said. It annoyed her that he had so little faith in her abilities, and the fact that it annoyed her, well… that irritated her as well. His snide remarks and nasty comments did nothing to bolster her confidence either. It seemed he had a particular grudge against her and was no more pleased with having to work together than she was.
However, for the sake of the male, Merlin, she would endure. That was one Warrior who needed all the help he could get. Sasha had never heard of the Kurai Senshi before, but based on what Mason said, they were not people you wanted to be on the wrong side of. She realized that his silence upon meeting that first night had nothing to do with any feelings or opinions he had toward her. In fact, it had everything to do with the guilt he felt at bringing this danger upon those closest to him. He must have been mortified to think he was the reason for this horrible threat. Not that she knew the details. Only that he was the one they were after and they would kill anyone in their way to get to him. From the way the others spoke, that meant everyone in shouting distance.
She realized Viper hadn’t looked away, still expected an answer. When a spark of emerald light split the room, she jumped. “Nothing,” she said, doing her best to avoid his intense glare. “It just… shouldn’t be this hard.” She no longer spoke to him, but to herself. What was she missing?
She leaned forward again and stared at the cuffs without touching them. Perhaps she was looking at this all wrong. She needed to come at it from a different angle, maybe sneak in through the back door rather than the frontal attack she’d been attempting for days.
She focused her magic, twisted it in her mind and aimed at a tiny spot just…
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, just say so and I’ll do it my…”
The explosion wasn’t her fault, really. If he hadn’t broken her concentration, she wouldn’t have slipped, and the magic would have slid into place rather than slamming in like it did. The boom rocked her, and she wasn’t surprised to find herself on the floor. What did surprise her was the presence of a certain surly Vampire stretched out on top of her.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
He was yelling. She could tell by the pulsing vein in his forehead that he most definitely had raised his voice. However, the ringing in her ears prevented her from doing much more than read his lips.
She glanced at her surroundings, tried to ignore the weight of his lean body against hers, the feel of his muscular arms around her. Strong hands grabbed the sides of her face and pulled her focus back to him. He was definitely angry, shown in the way his molars ground between bouts of silent-to-her cursing and by the way he shook his head. But she also saw something else. Something that unsettled her more than the explosion had.
He was furious, to be sure, and scornful no doubt, but as he continued to berate her, he also scanned her body from tip to toe. She assumed that he searched for injuries, but as he looked her over, genuine concern settled in his bunched-up brow and a swirl of emerald light danced in his narrowed eyes. None of that bothered her, really. However, when his hips pressed into her she could feel the hard length of him, feel his desire. And gods save her, her body responded. Had he been anyone else, Tas, for instance, she would have been flattered.
But from this Vampire, it could only spell trouble.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
E ach night since Martin first dodged Viper’s attack in blind training, his senses improved exponentially. He was to the point where he could feel Viper’s approach every time, and he’d only been struck once when his mind drifted off for a second. He quickly learned that these training sessions were no time to think about Merlin, or anything else for that matter.
Several of the others were catching on as well, but for the most part, they were all beaten and exhausted. For that reason, and probably because things were getting worse instead of better, Viper decided to give them all a night off, at least from training. Those on patrol schedule still had to go out, but for the rest of them it was one night of freedom. Martin had a feeling that directive came from higher up, but it really didn’t matter. He had every intention of sleeping for a good twenty of the twenty-four plus hours they were given.
That plan went to hell when Kyte and Oz came banging on his door. Both were prepared for a wild night out on the town, flasks on their hips and Vampahol contacts plastered to their eyeballs.
“Where are your lenses?” Oz asked, but Martin shook his head.
“No way. I told you I’m not touching that stuff again, especially if we’re going off Compound. You guys go ahead, enjoy yourselves.”
“You’re being a pussy,” Kyte said, and gave him a little shoulder shove.
“Maybe I am, but that shit’s dangerous. And it still tastes nasty.”
“This batch isn’t half bad,” Oz said. “I added cinnamon and some other spices. It’s almost like a schnapps.”
Martin rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?”
Both Soldiers grinned, and Martin kicked all thoughts of a relaxing evening to the curb. “The answer is still no to the ‘schnapps.’ But give me a minute and I’ll get us a vehicle from the garage. You’ve got yourselves a designated driver.”
An hour later, Martin sat at a table in Good Times sipping Yuengling and watching the others make fools of themselves. He was developing a taste for the stuff, and while the others were enjoying a crazed night on Vampahol, he was happy to sip the lager in honor of Merlin. Probably as close to the male as he’d ever get again.
He left the guys at the table and wandered up to the bar to grab another beer. He’d just ordered when he heard someone call his name. Martin turned his back to the bar and searched the crowd for someone he might know, one of the other Soldiers, perhaps. What he saw made his throat tighten and his mouth go dry. He pushed away from the bar, but there was no escape.
“Martin, hold up.”
“What do you want, Rolland?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“You came all the way from Cleveland to talk?”
“Well, yeah.” The bartender set Martin’s beer down and Rolland cleared his throat, signaled the man to bring him the same. “Mother sent me.”
Martin grabbed his bottle and shouldered past his younger brother. Rolland grabbed his arm to stop him, and Martin nearly sparked with fury. Only his training kept him from dropping fang and tearing the male’s throat out.
Rolland was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. He let go of Martin’s arm, but he didn’t back off. “Father’s ill. They need you to come home.”
“I am home,” Martin said. He tried to walk away, but a gaggle of humans blocked his path, forcing him to hear the next words from his brother’s mouth.
“Mother said you’ve made your point. You can survive on your own. Fine. We’re all proud, blah, blah, blah. Now come home and take your place in the family. Father may not last the week, and he wants to see you before he dies.”
“He wants to control me one last time,” Merlin said. “Not gonna happen. I’m where I belong.”
“You belong at home, with us. Stop being difficult. You’re acting like a spoiled child, and Mother’s had all she’s going to take. We all have. You’re the eldest male, and it’s up to you to take over the family. Mother’s arranged for your mating to transpire three weeks from today, and you will be there, if I have to drag you there myself.”
A mating? Martin had to admit, he hadn’t seen that one coming. “And just who am I supposed to be mated with?”
“Sandra from the…”
“Never mind, it doesn’t matter. I’m not going back.”
Rolland sighed, the sound a mixture of impatience and disgust. “You’re such a disappoin
tment,” he said. “I told Mother this was a waste of time, but she insists you’ll come around. Really, would it hurt for you to think of someone besides yourself for once in your life? Come home, mate with Sandra, be a proper male. It will shock the shit out of the aristocracy, and hasn’t that been your life’s goal from day one?”
Martin clenched his fists, the commitment he’d made to the Legion the only thing keeping him from punching the shit out of his brother. If he started on Rolland now, fangs and claws were going to fly, and his vow not to draw attention to the race would be out the window, so no. He wouldn’t be goaded into getting thrown out of the only place he’d ever felt like he belonged.
He loosened his fists and shook out his hands, put his arm around Rolland and walked him to the door. “Tell our mother that I couldn’t possible mate with Sandra.”
“And why not?”
“Because I’m already mated.”
“Bullshit. You’re just saying that to get out of your familial responsibilities.”
Martin put on his most serious face and placed his hand to his heart. “I swear to you on whatever you hold holy. I am well and truly mated, and to a Warrior no less.” A little white lie, but one he hoped would someday be true.
“That’s impossible,” Rolland sputtered. “There are no female Warriors in the Fallen Cross Legion.”
Martin smiled, couldn’t help showing a bit of fang to his least favorite sibling as he said, “Go home, Rolland,” and shoved the flustered male out the door.
Well, that was unpleasant, he thought as he headed back to the table.
Oz and Kyte were surrounded by a pack of human women, a couple having plopped themselves on each of the Soldiers’ laps. Martin grabbed a chair from a nearby table and sat, barely avoiding a fuzzy-haired blonde who tried to use him as a bar stool. He reached behind him and grabbed another chair, swung it around and motioned for her to sit.
She frowned, but took what he offered, and proceeded to talk his freakin’ ear off. He had no idea what she said, as the bar was loud and he made no effort to listen, but she kept touching his arm and pulling on his shirt sleeve. Each time, he’d remove her hands as gently as he could without hurting her feelings, but it was a matter of moments before she was back to the touchy-feely shit. He was glad Rolland wasn’t here to see this. Then again, he had no doubt the male was on his way home doing ninety from nothing, eager to share the latest gossip about the family’s blackest sheep ever.