In the Beginning... (43 page)

“I promise you, Mallory, I will not touch
you this night. Just get in and go to sleep.”

“Yeah, like that will be easy. If you try
anything, I’ll emasculate you first chance I get.” She climbed onto
the mattress and scooted to the far edge. She leaned back against
the pillows and watched him.

Aodhan pulled his tunic over his head and
tossed it to the laundry bin. His pants followed and he stood
before her wearing modern boxers in blue. Her eyes dropped to his
shorts and then widened. Aodhan felt a smirk hit his face. He lay
on the bed beside her, pulling the blankets up over them both. He
turned on his side to face her. “Goodnight, kitten. I am glad I
found you.”

His warmth threatened to suffocate her. The
smell of his skin threatened to overwhelm her. What in the hell was
she supposed to do?

He wasn’t touching her, was
keeping to his half of the bed. He wasn’t even looking at
her
the room was too dark for that and he
was turned away, sleeping soundly on his stomach. But he was taking
up a massive amount of mattress. She had nowhere to go. The bed was
pushed up against the wall, and the cool plaster blocked her from
escaping that way. No, she was stuck, right where she was. If she
climbed over him, he would wake and stop her.

Mal jumped when a large crack of thunder
sounded overhead, the sound startling the crap out of her.

He rolled toward her, his eyes opening.
“Kitten? What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. Just thunder. I wasn’t expecting
it.”

“Are you afraid then? It’s just a storm and
this hotel has stood against many such storms.”

“I’m not afraid of storms. It just startled
me.”

“I see.” He adjusted the blankets around her,
tucking it over her thoroughly.

Mal fought back a sigh. She was already
burning up from the heat he exuded.

She didn’t need blankets on top of her, too.
“You must stay covered. As a Dardaptoan female, the cold is not
your friend.”

“I’m not a Dardaptoan female. And I’m
burning up. You’re like a living furnace, you know that?”

“Are you saying I’m too hot for you?”

Mallory resisted the urge to
snort. “Not quite
”

She stopped speaking when his hand covered
her mouth. “Shh. Did you hear that?”

Mal shook her head. All she could hear was
her own heartbeat and the sound of the rumbling thunder. Then she
caught it, a shrill screaming voice like none she had ever heard.
Her soul froze as the sound echoed through the suite. Her nails dug
into his arm. He pulled her close, holding her tight as the shrill
echo grew louder. Closer. “What is it?”

“A Beansidhe. You’d call it a banshee.” His
arms were strong and tight around her as lightning flashed again,
filling the room with a momentary hot blue glow. He sat her aside
and stood, grabbing for the trousers he’d thrown in the laundry
basket just hours before.

Furious pounding sounded on the door and
Mallory barely resisted releasing a scream.

“Stay here, kitten. I’ll get the door.”

“What is it doing here?”

“A Beansidhe foretells death, and is best
met head on. If not, her wails will only grow until her message is
delivered. You just stay in bed; you’re perfectly safe here.”

Mallory had no intention of hiding under the
covers. “I’m coming with you.”

He studied her for a moment, as the knocking
on the door continued. “Then come. But stay behind me when she gets
here, and stay quiet. Can you do that?”

Mallory nodded. She wasn’t afraid of him,
but the creature responsible for that bone-chilling cold scream
terrified her. He led the way out of the bedroom and threw open the
door to the suite. A woman stood there, a look of panic on her
face.

“Auri.” He pulled the woman into the suite
and then closed the door behind her. “It woke you, too?”

“Yes. I wonder who...”

“I don’t know yet. The Beansidhe will be
here shortly. In under fifteen minutes. How is the rest of the
House doing?”

“Some are awake. First cousins, mostly.”

“So our line, then.” Grief hit his face and
Mal studied him. He hadn’t showed fear, though the woman who looked
like him was obviously frightened.

“Yes.”

“Excuse me, you’re saying that this thing is
telling you someone in your family is going to die and you are
doing nothing about it?” Mallory couldn’t even begin to understand
it. She’d do whatever she could to fight such a thing. “Can’t you
stop it, somehow?”

“No, kitten. Once a Beansidhe attaches
itself to a dying soul, nothing will prevent that death. Nothing.
Not even the deities above.” His words were resigned, and he
grabbed Mal’s hand and pulled her closer. She let him, too
surprised at what was happening to protest. “We can do nothing but
wait until we gain news of the death. One of us must speak with the
Beansidhe, listen to the message she delivers.”

“And then what?” Banshees were mythological.
They weren’t real. None of this was real, was it? “What will you do
after?”

“Try to determine who the message refers to.
It can be anyone we are related to.” The woman that Mallory assumed
was Aodhan’s sister sank onto the couch, shivering. “Anyone
anywhere in the world.”

“You mean the thing won’t tell you?” How
horrific, to know someone you loved was going to die but not who
that person was.

“No. Not likely. And we won’t even know when
it will happen either. It can be instantaneous, or can be weeks
down the road.”

“Do these banshees tell of
every death of your people, whatever you call them
Dardaptoans?”

He paced around the room, back and forth
from where Mallory stood near the wall between the sitting room and
the bedroom to the couch where his sister sat. “No.”

“Then why you?”

“Our line gained the attention of Beansidhe
through exploits on various battlefields. Beansidhe admire fierce
fighting and appreciation of death. This particular tribe have
attached themselves to the Adrastos family, foretelling deaths for
the last five millennia. They always come in the night, in the
midst of horrible storms,” the sister said.

“Can the rest of the hotel hear this?” Mal
asked as the shrieking increased.

“Not all. Just a few close relatives of ours
in this wing, or those who have married into other wings. We, as
the head of the Adrastos family, hear it the loudest.”

“So why am I hearing it, if only those you
are related to can hear it?”

His eyes were serious,
truthful, when he looked at her. “Because from the moment I first
recognized you as my
Rajni
, you became the female head of
my family, second only by my sister, Aureliana. You can hear the
Adrastos Beansidhe because you are an Adrastos, now.”

Mallory watched him pace around the room as
the sound of the shrill screaming continued. A crack of thunder
overhead shook the building, just as lightning flashed again. The
flash revealed a silhouette at the window.

Mallory did scream then, and crouched into a
defensive pose.

The other woman wrapped strong arms around
Mallory’s upper arms from behind her. “Be quiet. It won’t hurt us,
but we don’t want to draw its attention this way. Beansidhe can be
quite vindictive when pulled from their tasks. It’s best to let
Aodhan deal with it.”

Mallory nodded, though she remained tense.
His sister’s grip was strong and firm and she was at least three
inches taller and thirty pounds heavier than Mallory. Yet fear had
the larger woman trembling, as well. If she was frightened of this
thing, Mallory had every reason to be.

Of course, if what they’d said was true,
this Beansidhe was bringing news that someone was going to die.
Anyone would be terrified of it.

If the vampire was terrified of it, nothing
in his demeanor showed that terror. He stood facing the glass
veranda doors, arms crossed over his massive chest. He nodded
once.

The creature shrilled again, and the glass
separating her from the room’s occupants shattered into millions of
pieces. Mallory bit her knuckles to prevent another scream from
escaping.

Aodhan did nothing, did not even flinch. A
tiny bit of admiration for him burned through her mind.

Mallory studied the glowing creature that
now stood less than two yards from the vampire. After she got past
the glow, she could easily see that the Beansidhe was beautiful.
Ethereal. Cold and frightening. And her eyes were open in what
could only be described as a cross between tortured grief and the
sightless stare of someone who was long dead.

Mallory’s shivers were just as strong as
Aodhan’s sister’s. The other woman continued to hold Mallory,
whether to keep Mallory from running, or because Aureliana needed
emotional support. The why wasn’t quite clear to Mallory, but she
didn’t mind. She clung just as tightly.

How could he face the thing so calmly?
Mallory was fighting the urge to wet her pants.

The Beansidhe looked straight at her and
Aodhan’s sister. A keening wail echoed throughout the suite.

His sister’s voice was fierce in Mallory’s
ear. “Don’t look away from her.

She’s staring at the two of
us, and if we don’t listen, she will become angry.”
Mal nodded slowly, staring unblinking at the
creature.

Nothing had ever terrified her more than
when the Beansidhe opened her mouth and began to speak.

“Cherish the children, cherish the child.
Cherish the child! The poor, poor children! Cherish or all shall be
lost...”

“So what do you think it meant?” Emily asked
Mal the next morning. Mal had met her cousin in the private sitting
room after Aodhan had disappeared to do whatever it was he did when
he wasn’t tormenting her. Mal hadn’t been back to sleep, and all
she wanted was to curl up on the couch and think about what she’d
seen.

“They don’t know. Only that
there will be kids involved. Auri is a wreck
that’s Aodhan’s younger sister
trying
to figure it out.”

“And how is the man who took you? What did
he do?”

Mal thought back to those awful moments just
after the Beansidhe had disappeared, her wails echoing over the
sound of the storm. The vampire had stared out into the night for
several long minutes before turning back to where Mallory and his
sister stood. The other woman still hadn’t let Mallory go, and
Mallory honestly thought Auri had needed the support Mallory was
providing.

Aodhan had crossed the room
to them. Mallory’s breath had caught at his expression. Fear,
grief, determination
all were mingled in
his eyes. He’d surprised her, jerking her and his sister into his
arms and hugging them. His arm had been so tight around her she’d
almost been unable to breathe. His hand had moved up into her hair,
just above the braid that was coming loose and he’d pulled her even
closer. He’d kissed her, strong and hard. Then pulled back and
kissed his sister’s forehead.

It had been a long time before he let them
go.

“Mal? You with me?”

“He said there was nothing they could do,
they just had to play it out. But he looked sick.”

“I suppose he would. If what I’ve learned is
correct, he’s the head of a branch of these people. There’s almost
two thousand people per branch. And if he’s related to all of them
somehow...there is no way they would be able to figure it out in
time to do anything about it.”

Mal nodded. That’s what his sister had said.
“That’s a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.”

Emily nodded. “Yes. It is. I can almost feel
sorry for him.”

“If he hadn’t kidnapped me, yeah. I can see
that. Do you think it’s true?

What they’ve said about Grandfather?”

“Yes. You know we saw the pictures. Rydere
says there’s video, too.”

“Sick. Do you think our dads know?”

Emily shook her head. “No. I don’t think
they can, or they would have stopped him somehow.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Oh, Em. What are we going to do?” Mal sank
to the couch beside her cousin and buried her face in her
hands.

“Whatever we have to in order to get through
this.” Emily leaned against Mal’s shoulder.

How was she supposed to do that? Mallory
continued to ask herself that as the week passed, but the answer
was never quite clear. He continued to sleep beside her at night,
and after that first night with the banshee, she was half grateful
for it. He was big and warm, and though he’d kidnapped her, she
knew he meant it when he’d said he’d keep her safe.

At least...she believed he’d keep her safe
while he held her against her will.

No one had died, yet. But she somehow sensed
that everyone in his family were on eggshells waiting for it. They
all walked around with somber expressions and she’d seen several
parents keep their children very close.

It had her even more on edge. How much worse
must it be for him, being the leader of these people?

Mal’s head and heart were filled with
thoughts of him as she wandered through the back hall leading
toward the gardens. She hadn’t had much time with him over the last
few days, and if she were perfectly honest with herself, that had
her unsettled.

Some part of her was beginning to search for
him everywhere. That terrified her way more than the banshee had.
Her hands fiddled with the turquoise scarf knotted around her
waist. He’d given her a clip that morning, a turquoise, silver, and
tourmaline piece shaped like a hawk. He’d said it represented his
family. The clip held the scarf just under the intricate knot he’d
tied it in. He liked doing that, she’d noticed. It didn’t matter
what she wore each day clothing-wise, but he always tied a
turquoise, or turquoise and white, scarf around her hair or her
waist. Claiming her as a part of his family.