A Thief of Nightshade (18 page)

He turned to see Given, holding herself up with one hand on the wet ground, the other pressed against her head.

She was bleeding. “Given, are you all right?” He went to her, expecting to be yelled at for his stupidity in getting them into this mess, but instead, Given seemed too out of it for words. She looked around dazed, but didn’t say anything. “Given?”

She finally turned, confused by the blood that dripped down her forehead. He looked around for something to hold to her head, but there wasn’t anything. In fact, there wasn’t anything for her to dry off with, either. His fur dried far quicker than the slip of a dress she wore, so at least his back and head were dry. She was soaked to the bone and shivering. He could also tell that she was in a great deal of pain and was suffering the final effects of the nightshade she’d so selflessly taken from Aubrey. She’d lost her voice.

Her lower lip quivered when she tried to speak and found that she couldn’t, prompting her to draw back from him and curl into a ball against the far corner of the cell. He waited, debating whether to give her space or not, but when he saw her body shake with silent sobs, he made up his mind.

“Don’t cry. I’m not mad that I warned you we were going the wrong way. It’s okay that you didn’t listen.” He nudged her with his nose, but his attempt at humor did absolutely nothing to console her. “Given, I’m so sorry. Please, I know what you did for Aubrey. I’m a complete ass.” He lay down close beside her. “I’m not good at this kind of thing and when you regain your voice you can tell me all about just how big of an ass I am, but for right now, please...”

She turned over, her eyes sparkling with tears, and despite the muck and mire she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. She reached over, still sniffling, and petted the top of his head.

There was a time when he would have found it completely humiliating, but now there was tenderness and innocence to it that touched him in a way he’d never known was possible. After a few minutes she snuggled against him, resting with her head against the driest part of his back. It took awhile, but eventually Given’s

breathing leveled into a deep rhythm and he knew she’d fallen asleep.

The white lion threaded his way through the forest, deftly dodging in and out of the thickest undergrowth until he had made it to the grand gates of the Winter Court of Neath. Once there, he shifted back to his usual form of Morrigan, head of Her Majesty’s guard and leader of the Sidhe.

“I trust you’ve taken care of everything?” Saralia looked up from her plate long enough to acknowledge his arrival.

He bowed low, his long pale hair pulled into a taut braid at the nape of his neck. “Yes, your Majesty. They were right where Lady Crimson said they would be.”

Saralia smiled, her ice-like skin shimmering in the candlelight. “Good, then that’s the end of it. She’ll either die of her wounds, be eaten piece by piece, or worse, depending on Cedrick’s level of derangement. The spell I worked on him was rather elaborate. I’m going to hope for worse. Nicely done, Morrigan. I’m quite pleased.”

This was the part he hadn’t been looking forward to. “Your Majesty, I must forewarn you, she no longer travels with just the bear.”

Saralia set down her fork with an agitated clink. “Go on.”

Morrigan cleared his throat. “There is a Shade...”

Saralia laughed. “Morrigan, you really should know better than to place so much faith in half-breed magic. She cannot heal our little human, no matter how hard she tries.”

Morrigan looked down, dreading his next words. “It isn’t just any Shade. It’s your daughter.”

“JUST LEAVE IT ALONE,” JULLIAN

LAUGHED.

They’d been driving for almost an hour and Aubrey was dying. He’d woken her up at an ungodly hour, made her put on a blindfold and now here they were. “Are we ever going to get there?”

“I promise we’re almost there. Just a few more minutes.” He lovingly laid his hand on her leg. “You aren’t normally this impatient, I’m shocked.”

That was extraordinarily far from the truth and they both knew it. “Give me a hint.”

“No, you’ve had three so far. Way beyond generous.”

“Please,” she pleaded.

He squeezed her leg, eliciting a squeal.

“You know that tickles.”

He laughed low. “Why do you think I did it?”

“Just one more hint? Then you can tickle me as much as you want.”

“Just one?” He half-squeezed.

“Yes, yes, I swear it.” Her stomach hurt from laughing so much; he’d been doing this since they’d left the house.

“The only mirror that can be shattered and put back together again.”

Aubrey thought about it a second.

“You can’t shatter a mirror and put it back together. Well, not and see clearly.”

“As clear as if it never happened.”

She grinned, amused by his theatrics, but more than anything impressed by his wit. She really couldn’t answer him, just like she hadn’t been able to guess based on the last three clues. “You really don’t want me to know, do you?”

“I wouldn’t have spent the last year getting this surprise ready for you if I were going to tell you on the way, nor would I have blindfolded you.”

She almost stopped breathing. “When did you ... all those weekends you were doing guest lectures?”

He rubbed her leg. “Every minute.”

She was profoundly touched, to the point she couldn’t respond immediately.

“Someone wise once said, ‘It is easier to tell someone that you love them than it is to show them.’” He slowed down the SUV and she felt the tires go off road. They traveled for another five minutes over relatively rough terrain before they came to a complete stop. She waited for him to come around and help her out. He led her over a path of rocks and onto what felt like boards as the soft lapping of water filled her ears.

“Wait just one more minute. Now, this,” he gently untied the blindfold, “is me showing you.”

She opened her eyes and gasped. The lake, surrounded by magnificently colored trees, stretched farther than she could see.

The sun, just as he’d clearly planned, appeared on the horizon and cast an array of golden threads across the foggy surface of the only mirror that could be shattered and put back together. “Jullian.”

He rested his hands on her shoulders.

“Turn around,” he whispered.

Aubrey did, and behind them stood the most beautiful cabin she’d ever seen.

She could tell that Jullian hadn’t simply hired others to do it, he had done it himself. Every detail, every carved log and stained-glass window was fashioned by him and he had done it all for her. The idea alone that anyone would spend that much time on anything pertaining to her was moving, but this was overwhelming.

Before she could even formulate a response, he picked her up and kissed her.

Her heart raced and with both of them breathless, Jullian carried her inside and laid her on the bed. He started to say something, but Aubrey placed a finger to his lips, then wrapped her arms around his neck and rose to meet his mouth.

His kiss was soft, sincere and somehow ... desperate. His hands touched her skin, caressed. After a few moments, he paused to whisper in her ear, “I know that this isn’t telling you everything. Not yet. I know that. But, this is me ... trying to tell you some things about me, about my past. Please Aubrielle, take this as—”

She cut him off with another kiss, this one deeper and full of a different kind of desperation. He moaned in response and fell back from where he’d been holding himself up by his elbows.

Aubrey pulled away, eyes still closed, but kept her face close to his.

“You want me to take this as your way of trying the best you know how, to tell me what you’re not sure how to tell me? Yes, I know. I am. And I love you, too.”

“I thought I’d lost you,” he choked. “I almost did. I’m still afraid of losing you.”

Aubrey moved from beside Jullian onto his lap, still keeping her cheek touching his. “You found me, Jullian.” She sat up. “Look at me. You aren’t going to lose me.”

He opened his eyes, which were filled with unshed tears.

“You found me. You asked Grant that night if he felt free ... said that you’d known I was held captive by something ...

Jullian, you freed me from that. I want you to feel that same freedom. But, I understand if it takes time. You aren’t going to lose me, I promise.”

He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. His hold tightened and she could tell that something had begun to change. A moment later, he pressed his mouth against hers, this time with such tenderness it was almost painful.

“Aubrey, my family,” he mirrored her earlier actions, closing his eyes and keeping his cheek against hers, “the majority of them think I’m dead. I can’t go back home ... despite how much I miss it.”

“Did you do something illegal?” she asked, intrigued.

This actually elicited a soft chuckle from him. “Well, that depends on how you define the word. But, to answer what you really meant to ask, no, I’m not in any kind of trouble with the law here.”

“Here? As in Georgia here? Or United States here?”

He took way too long to answer for her taste. “I’m not going to lie to you...”

Then it dawned on her. “Witness protection! You’re in hiding. Oh my God, did they feed you a story? Did you really graduate from—”

He was laughing so hard by then he could hardly speak. “Slow down, slow down. No, everything I told you about the past ten years was totally true. And, I guess you could say, in a way, it’s like witness protection. A tad more intense perhaps. That’s as close as I’m able to come to describing it right now. But, I’ll figure out a way to tell you everything.

Please believe me. I will.”

She couldn’t have wiped the smile off her face had she tried. “I believe you.”

He swept her mouth with his thumb.

“What’s behind that smile of yours? I haven’t seen you smile like this in ... since that fundraiser at the Jordans’. I thought you might be upset that I still can’t tell you —”

“It’s a beginning. Just like that night in the garden. And I’m not upset at all.”

“Feels like a beginning doesn’t it?”

Jullian asked.

“Yes, it does.”

He sat up, cradling her face. “The first time we made love ... was it difficult for you? Emotionally? I wish I’d known.”

She placed her hands over his. “I was afraid it would be physically painful.

And it ... it brought up some memories at first. But, I’m glad you didn’t know then.

You would have acted differently. I don’t think I could have handled that.”

“Do I act differently now?”

“No, but that first time I’m sure you would have. Truth is, despite some of my actions, I’ve felt like I gained some small part of myself back after that. You gave me back something that had been taken away from me, that most young women come into adulthood thinking about with excitement, not fear. I avoided intimacy with boyfriends in the past for that very reason. I was terrified of it, but I’ve never felt that way with you, not even in the beginning. I’ve never taken the time to thank you, but since we’re on the subject...”

Jullian pulled her to him and kissed her sweetly, his tongue gently teasing, stroking, the sweet pressure of his mouth on hers easing her tension. Beneath her hands, the muscles of his chest flexed and she worked to free him of his shirt.

“There’s never been anyone else,” he said suddenly.

She was out of breath from the kiss still. “What?”

He grinned that boyish grin she’d fallen for so many years ago. “I think I was too embarrassed to tell you that.”

“No way.”

He blushed. “Yes way.”

She leaned back to look at him and narrowed her eyes. “Really?”

“Yes ... really. I know. It’s not the norm where I come from, either. I just ...

knew that I’d know it was right when I met you. And I did.” He smiled, but when she didn’t his hold on her tightened. “Hey, what’s going on? Talk to me.”

She shook her head, her stomach in a knot. “I don’t know, I guess I feel like you got cheated.”

“What? Honey, what are you talking about? Here I am, a nameless nobody who has enough issues with his past to fill a shrink’s planner for five solid years, and you think you’re somehow lacking?