Tenebris began to relax inside of me. I didn’t understand it. We’d been cruelly betrayed by the one thing we’d thought would never hurt us. That should have taught her a permanent lesson. Should have made her incapable of wanting to trust anything or anyone else again. But I felt the warmth of her regard for James, and I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was happening to us right now.
Was this shock?
Were we not destined to become the killer of worlds? Wasn’t that my ultimate fate? It was what Death had told me. And yeah, he’d mentioned there being an almost nonexistent chance of not repeating history this time, but I wasn’t sure I could win this. Not without Mercer by my side.
It all made a perverse sense now, why Mercer had done as he’d done. Because it had been fated to happen all along. Right? Tenebris couldn’t possibly have anything else to hold on to? War had known that. It’s why she’d chopped us off at the knees, taking away from us the one thing that could have saved us.
But then a flash of Steven’s sweet smile made me pause, made that fucking awful ache squeeze my throat tight, and I knew there was one more reason.
We still had a reason to fight. To hang on.
Maybe the glue that would help me hold her insanity in check wasn’t our shared love of Mercer, but of everyone else.
“I confess,” James whispered softly, “that I do not understand what made Mercer do this. But I know him, and ye do too. This isn’t like him, lass. This isn’t. Whatever is happening to him, it’s outside of his control. Don’t give in to the monster. Don’t give up hope. Isobel did, and I lost everything that meant anything to me that night. I canna lose ye too. I can’t.”
With a shudder, I leaned into his hard body and suddenly felt as if my knees were too weak to hold me up any longer. No doubt sensing that, James grabbed me below the knees, hefted me up, and held me tight for several long moments while we breathed quietly against one another.
Was he right? Was there still any shred of hope? Had I been looking at this all wrong? It wasn’t Mercer that had betrayed us, not in the technical sense. It had been his wolf.
His wolf, who I knew loved me, no matter what it had said or done because it was incapable of anything else.
Death had told me Mercer had been built to be my guardian. Was he guarding me now? Was I letting my emotions blind me to that?
Was there more here that I still didn’t see?
A burst like a flickering spark of radiant light burned like a short flare inside me as Tenebris mulled it over too.
With one final exhale, James said, “I came here earlier to let ye know that ye must shower. The Campbell has sent for ye this evening.”
“What?” I asked, wrapping my arms around his neck as I listened to the rhythm of his beating heart, imagining for just a moment that it wasn’t James, but Mercer who held me now.
But that thought was too painful for me to hold on to for long. I shoved it away, burying it deep. Maybe there was still hope left, maybe there wasn’t, but now wasn’t the time for me to get lost in thinking about it.
I swallowed hard and shook my head. I was stronger than this. I had to be.
James turned down the long hall, heading back to the den area where, to my surprise the previous night, I’d discovered a shower hidden behind a floating wall.
He shrugged. “I’m not certain. But he seemed highly distressed, lass.”
“Do you think this has something to do with what I did the other night?”
James shrugged me higher into his arms. “I ken no more than that, lassie,” he said just as we stepped through into the den.
Blue was standing in the kitchen, plating a Flintstone-sized steak, clearly for Steven, who was sitting at the kitchen table and licking his chops with drool puddling down his chin.
He looked at me, looked at James, and cocked his head.
“One, why the hell are you naked?” he drawled as he walked toward Steven and dropped the plate onto the table with a jarring clatter.
Steven, never one to waste a nice, rare steak, attacked it like a grizzly waking up after a long hibernation. He mumbled something unintelligible that I thought could have been a greeting to me, since he was looking right at me with cheeks bulging like a chipmunk.
“Two, what’s up with all that blood on you? I mean, I personally don’t mind a little blood play now and then, but it seems a little excessive of your douchy husband to leave you quite so”—he waggled his fingers at me—“well, just so.” He shuddered.
“And three, why was I not invited?” He wagged his lavender-colored brows at me with a lascivious smirk.
Today, Blue looked like my old Blue. I wasn’t sure when he’d left to get all his stuff, but he was looking like a fierce drag queen in a sparkling red strapless sheath, sky-high heels, and makeup that would have revved RuPaul’s engine. His lavender wig had a good four-inch pouf to it. He was lovely, and it made me smile softly even as James tensed beneath me.
I glanced at Steven, who was now down to the last bits of fat on the easily-four-pound steak. The boy would need another chop just to take the edge off. He was definitely nearing another stage of metamorphosis.
Steven wouldn’t be locked into his final and ultimate shifter form until well into his early aughts, but he was going to get much stronger very soon. In fact, Mercer and I had just been talking about that very thing only a few nights past.
I squeezed my eyes shut and patted James’s hand to let me down. I was better now. I was under control. I wouldn’t lose my shit again. Especially not with my brother right there.
Seeming reluctant to do so, James gently placed me back on my feet, but held my elbow tight.
I nodded at him before gently extricating myself from his grasp.
Standing back at the stove with another raw piece of steak in his hands, Blue frowned. “Wait? Did I miss something? Where’s your dog, Sca—”
“Dammit all, Blue, must ye be so fecking—”
“Hey.” I turned and shook my head at James. “Steven. Okay?”
He inhaled. The black leather jacket he always wore stretched open with his deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Scar. It’s just... I’m so...”
I patted his chest. “I know. And I thank you for caring. But I can’t do this anymore. Not right now. I have to get ready to meet a king.” I rolled my eyes, giving him a weak smile.
He sniffed and reached out to tuck a strand of my still-dirty hair behind my ear. His touch was almost too painful for me to endure because it was the touch and smell of a wolf on me. But not my wolf.
Not the one who’d promised me the world.
He shuddered and pulled his hand back, as if he’d read my thoughts.
“The boy was summoned too,” he said slowly. “Ye must both—”
“Hell no,” I said, instantly on edge again. “Hell. No. Steven isn’t going anywhere near that place.”
James frowned. “Scar, ye canna do that.”
I chuckled low. “Oh, I can, and I will. That’s my little brother, and if they think for one goddamn moment that I’ll just hand him over to the wolves, they’ve got another think coming. Not on my watch. I don’t trust any of them.”
“Scar.” He clenched his fists open and shut. “This... this canna be born. The Campbell willna stand for it.”
“My mind is made up, and that’s that,” I hissed.
Steven’s little voice piped up from behind me. “Scar, I’m okay. I can go. They won’t hurt me.” He was so trusting. So naïve.
Tenebris shivered.
The hands of fate are upon us, sister, she said in my mind. You are right to keep the child away. Mother has only just begun.
I trembled at hearing her actually speak to me again. It was so rare anymore. But her words encouraged me. No matter what, Steven couldn’t be allowed anywhere near the castle.
I turned and looked at my brother, feeling the heavy weight of Blue’s gaze sear into me.
“Sweetheart, you remember when you told
me before that you trust me?”
Steven nodded as he stirred his fork through the juices of the now-empty plate, licking what bits of blood were left onto his little pink tongue. “Yeah.”
I walked over to him, kneeling by his side until our gazes were level.
The shine of feral intelligence gazed back at me. His little wolf would be a powerful Alpha someday. I just knew it.
After what had happened last night, the Campbell asking for me, I knew this was it. I would face the Campbell. I would face Mercer. My heart squeezed, making me breathless and dizzy as pain blossomed like the prick of a rose thorn sliding deep into my flesh.
I didn’t know what the end would bring. But Tenebris and I were going to face down War, and we were going to win. This ended now. Whatever the hell she’d done to Mercer would be undone, and he would be himself again.
Tenebris moved inside of me like a rattler’s coils, and unease rushed through my veins. What if James was wrong? Doubt crept into my heart. What if it wasn’t War who’d manipulated him at all? What if this was him now?
What if—
“Scarlett?” Steven asked softly, cutting through my growing paranoia with his sweet, small voice.
I blinked, smiling at his cherubic face full of fear.
“Hey, whelp,” I gently rubbed at his hair, patting down one of his cowlicks, not that it did any good. The second my hand moved, the hair sprang right back up, mocking me.
I studied my brother’s face, committing to memory every freckle, the tiny cleft in his jaw, the deep cupid’s bow of a mouth. The round nose that would one day look more like his mother’s or father’s.
“Scar, you’re scaring me,” he said softly.
I grabbed his hands that he’d had curled on his lap. He moved with me without blinking. Even when he’d been terrified of me, Steven had been the only being in the history of the world who’d always trusted me implicitly.
“Do you know that I held you in my arms when you were only three days old?” I framed our hands together, miming holding a tiny bundle. “Just this furry little thing made of teeth and velvet-soft brown fur. That was the day I realized you were the cutest thing I’d ever seen in all my life.”
He grinned, showing off far sharper-looking canines than he’d had just yesterday. My heart squeezed. Gods, he was getting so big, looking more and more like his mama every day.
“Was I really that cute?”
Lucille and I had never really gotten on. In fact, the only thing we’d ever agreed on was our undying and devoted love of her only offspring. I made a vow to him after she died that I would never allow anyone or anything to hurt him ever again.
I pulled his small but deliciously warm hands to my lips and kissed his knuckles tenderly, dragging his sweet, innocent scent deep inside me. In my darkest times, I would remember this very moment, and it would remind me why I fought and who I was fighting for.
“The very cutest,” I said with a soft grin. “When your mama died, I promised I would always watch over you.”
He nodded. “So did Merc. Where is he? Why is he always gone now?”
I blinked, eyes feeling suddenly hot, and released a shuddery breath. “Don’t you worry about your brother. Okay? I promise you, you’re going to be just fine, and you’re going to grow up big and strong and make lots of babies someday.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Yuck. Girls are gross. And they’re mean. Shenandoah is always calling me ugly and pouncing on me when I’m not looking. I hate girls.”
I laughed and pulled him tight to me, kissing his sweet little head and thanking the gods that I’d had Steven in my life to remind me what it was to love something so unconditionally.
Steven had always been my center, my humanity. He’d been the one who’d reminded me that there was more to being a vampire than just giving in to the bloodlust and craving to do bad.
“You have my heart, little buddy,” I whispered, hugging him so tight that I heard the air get pushed out of him.
But he hugged me back just as tight, and when we pulled apart, there was a sheen in his eyes.
“You have mine, too, Scar,” he said softly.
I grinned even as his image blurred. Not wanting him to see me cry, I got quickly to my feet and glanced at Blue.
“I think I know why Death sent you with me, Blue.”
“Do you?” He cocked a brow, beautiful face stern and serious.
I nodded. “Yes, it was for this. So that you could do what none of us could. You can take him to faery.”
“Scar! No!” James gasped.
But I growled, and held a hand out toward him, feeling my cheeks carve out.
“Don’t you dare try to stop me. Or him. I will gladly bear the punishment for this, even if it is death. Steven will not be touched by violence anymore.”
My little brother launched himself off the chair, hugging my leg tight and whimpering as he rested his cheek against my waist.
“No, Scar-Scar. No. Let me come with you. Don’t banish me to faery. Don’t make me leave you.”
“Oh, little wolf.” I hugged his neck, no longer able to hide my tears from him. “I love you so much. And I promise I’m not banishing you. But I am keeping you safe. No matter what, okay? Your brother and I, we don’t have a choice, buddy. But you do. You’re too young for what’s happening here. You’re too young for the darkness that’s coming. I couldn’t protect you against Sharp Elbows, and I didn’t do nearly enough to save you from that awful vampire, but I’ll be damned if I don’t save you now. If your brother was here, I know he’d agree with me. Okay? So you do what I say, no matter what. You stay far, far away from this place. Stay safe. That’s the only way I can do what I’m going to have to do.”
His small nostrils flexed as he stared up at me with wide, trusting, and innocent eyes. “You’re going to bring her out, aren’t you?”
The her was Tenebris. He’d seen her power once before, and I hated myself that he had. I’d only ever wanted Steven to see me as his friend and sister. My smile was sad.
Steven sniffed back tears. “Okay, Scar.” He hugged me tight again, “Okay. I’ll go with Blue. But you have to promise me something.”
I chuckled, even as my heart felt like it was breaking into a thousand pieces. “This could be very dangerous for me, couldn’t it?”
He shook his head, wiping his nose on my thigh, which was disgusting, but I wasn’t moving for the world.
Steven turned to me and said simply, “Come back. Come back for me. Both of you. I lost my mommy and daddy. But then I got them back again.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, understanding dawning on me. And I couldn’t help it. I curled into him, and though I was a vampire, I wanted to howl like a wolf with sorrow.
I was his mommy. And Mercer his daddy. At least in his mind. He had no idea that history had already begun to repeat itself.
“Please, don’t make me lose my mama and daddy again,” he pleaded. “Please.”
There was nothing I could say to him other than a lie. I wasn’t sure I would survive what was coming, and with Mercer’s betrayal, I had no idea what lay in store for him either.
But I wouldn’t let Steven leave with a heavy heart and uncertainty.
So I knelt, and looked him square in the eye.
“No matter what, my little warrior, I will find my way back to you. I vow it to the darkness that binds.”
The air quickened with the unbreakable oath, and he quivered, long dark lashes fluttering against his cheeks. But he was easy now, trusting me implicitly.
I was sick to my stomach, understanding what I’d done and knowing my chances were slim to none, but I had my beacon now. I’d made a promise, and I would die before I broke it to him.
I kissed his cheek one last time.
“Blue. Take him.” My words broke. “Take him now.”
“As my flower wishes, so mote it be,” he said with a flourishing bow. Then he grabbed hold of Steven’s hand and, just like that, my little brothe
r was gone.
And I wasn’t sure I’d ever see him again.
Chapter 14
Scarlett
I was just stepping out of the shower when I felt someone return. I sniffed and smelled a sea of Chanel No. 5.
Reaching for a towel at the same moment he did, I stared at Blue, letting him look his fill of me.
His gaze was hot, raking. His gown glittering in the soft glow of the candles I’d lit after they’d all left.
I felt so damn empty. So hopeless.
With a heavy sigh, he took the towel off the wall hook and held it out to me like a robe. I walked into it and sighed when he wrapped me up in his strong arms.
Hanging my head, I closed my eyes and tried to turn off the thoughts that refused to stop hounding me.
I had no mate anymore. I’d only been mated a few weeks, but after feeling the fullness of such a thing, to go without it now was devastating to my heart. I was furious with Mercer, and I wanted to hate him. I’d sworn when I’d woken up that I would hate him, but my fucking heart just couldn’t let go.
“Anyone,” Blue whispered, “who could hurt you like this does not deserve you.”
I turned in his arms and looked up at him, at his oddly beautiful face, at his soft femininity and yet breathtaking masculinity, and I wanted to cry. But I felt emptied of tears too.
Like there was literally nothing left in me anymore.
Steven was gone. Mercer would never again be mine.
“I’ve got nothing,” I whispered.
He shook his head, brushing his fingers over my cheek. “You’ve got me. James. Even that asshole Gareth.”
I chuckled despite myself. “Gods, remind me never to fall in love with you. I swear I’m off men for good.”
He snorted. “Yeah, but it got you to laugh, right?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, it did.”
“The thing is, Scar, you’re not as alone as you might feel. You know how old I am?”
I blinked, lost by the sudden turn in conversation. “What? I... I guess I never really thought about it. You’ve always just been Blue to me.”
He grinned. “Just Blue. Gods. I’m three thousand years old, give a take a few decades.”
The Vampire Went Down to Georgia Page 18