Darkest Caress (16 page)

Cade’s tone softened. “So if you won’t do it for your sake or hers, do it for ours. We don’t stand a chance without you, and you know that.”

Daegan dragged a hand over his face then turned off the bathroom lights. Seeing that ring of yellow in his eyes made him sick to his stomach. But what choice did he have about Liv right now? Some of the anger and aggression drained out of him. “The bonding has to be done of her own free will. Without that it means nothing. She’s already been through too much. Two days ago she didn’t even know the Empowered existed, let alone that she’s one of us. I’m not going to force her into anything else until she’s ready.”

“For God’s sake, she doesn’t even know what you did to her or what it means. She shouldn’t have had to find out about it from me. You owe her an explanation.”

“I
know
.” That didn’t mean he knew how he was going to handle it. God, this mess would never have happened in the old days. Before they’d been driven to the brink of extinction there would have been someone in her family, in the community, to teach her about the Empowered and all the nuances of their lives. She would have been prepared for him and their relationship on some level at least. But to be blindsided this way and given no choice about her future? He could never live with that. Not after the suffering he’d witnessed as a child. “I won’t force her further into this.” No matter the consequences.

“You already have.”

The hard words sent a fresh wave of guilt through his strung out system. Cade was right. The cold reality couldn’t be ignored. There was no way out for either of them now. He’d taken away Liv’s choice the moment he’d marked her. Not intentionally, but the damage was done. He’d wanted to bond with her, and it had been the only way to stop the torment of her Heat Cycle. His good intentions to pull away before he marked her had gone to shit when she’d held him to her throat and begged for more. If he’d stayed any longer she would have marked him in turn on pure instinct, without realizing the enormity of the act.

All he could give her now was the most time possible to make the final decision on her own.

He dragged a hand through his hair. This was so fucking complicated. “Shit.”

His cousin’s gaze narrowed as he studied his face. “This is because of your parents.”

Daegan inhaled, the muscles in his neck tight enough to snap. “You know what happened.”

“Yeah, but you’re not your father.”

No, and thank God for that. “I won’t do to Liv what he did to my mother.”

“Are you listening to yourself? What the hell kind of logic is that?”

Daegan shook his head, adamant. Cade would never understand. He’d had a picture perfect family. He didn’t know how bad it had been for Daegan and his mother. No one did. “Liv needs time,” he said finally.

Cade shook his head. “She doesn’t
have
time, and neither do you. What she needs is you, idiot. So if you don’t get your head out of your ass ASAP, I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands.”

Every cell in Daegan’s body reacted to the thinly veiled threat. The bonded male in him growled in warning. “Meaning?” If Cade laid a hand on Liv in anything other than a brotherly manner, Daegan would tear him apart, cousin or not.

Cade shrugged, turned away as he headed for the door. “It means I won’t sit back and watch you serve up your own death sentence.”

The thud of the steel door reverberated through the hollowness in his chest.

Dammit. He had to fix this somehow. Liv had every right to hate him, but he couldn’t allow her to think he didn’t care. She might not realize it, but she mattered to him on a scale she wouldn’t even begin to comprehend. As of last night, she held his life in her hands.

“Hell.” The alarm system wasn’t nearly sufficient protection for her, but he didn’t know how else to keep her safe for the time being without staying there in person. Besides, being together was a risk in itself. Anyone coming after him might target her as well, though aside from that Aaron asshole he didn’t think anyone had seen them together. While he wanted to give her more time to adjust, he was afraid she might only have another few days at most to make her decision.

He’d seen flickers of shadows closing in. The threat of danger lurking. From past experience, he’d learned not to ignore his visions. The hard way.

Death didn’t always come at the hands of the enemy. Sometimes it was wrought by a person’s own hand after suffering a lifetime of unspeakable misery from a cruel and vindictive mate.

He shoved the painful memories aside, filled with a renewed conviction that he was doing the right thing. Whatever happened from here, Liv would have the choice his mother never had.

With his muscles twitching from an overload of stress and frustration, Daegan stalked over to one of the gun cabinets along the wall of the equipment room, opened it. Cade had taken care of everything, he saw with satisfaction. All the weapons were cleaned, the amber-embedded rounds loaded into the clips. Their custom-made K-bar knives were sharpened to a deadly edge and slipped into their sheaths. Only the handles were visible, with intricately carved amber cartouches in the centers. Ready and waiting to send any Dark Army members to hell where they belonged.

“It has to be enough,” he muttered. Yet looking at the small arsenal before him, he couldn’t suppress another prickle of unease about his decision to allow Liv to stay in her own home.

In all honesty it would be safer for everyone if she stayed at the mansion. The hell of it was, he could never keep his distance from her if she did. And that left him pretty much fucked either way.

Nida, Lithuania

A little bell tinkled above the door when Nairne entered the bookshop. The elderly woman behind the desk looked up from her work and smiled. Returning the smile, Nairne used her limited Lithuanian to request the book the woman had set aside for her weeks ago.

The woman’s face lit up. “You are the one searching for tales about the Empowered?”

“Yes.” She wanted to see it in person before buying it, to make sure it was as old as the shopkeeper claimed.

When the lady disappeared into the back Nairne tried to tamp down her excitement. But when she reappeared with a slim, leather-bound book, Nairne’s heart started hammering. It looked old, possibly from the eighteenth century. She couldn’t wait to examine it further.

A gnarled, bony finger tapped the front cover. “German.”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

“Old German. You read this?”

“Some.” But she had help if she needed it.

With a satisfied smile, the woman passed her the blue leather book, babbling something too fast for Nairne to catch. Not that she was trying very hard. Her attention was riveted by the book in her hands. The pages were thin and yellowed with age, but the printing was in perfect condition. One chapter title in particular caught her eye. The Legend of the Prophecy. Her breath caught. Was this it? Proof that the Empowered were real, that she was a possible descendant? It would explain the gift she and her great grandmother seemed to have.

Someone touched her arm. Startled, she looked up.

The woman smiled, said something else Nairne didn’t understand, then gestured behind her to the door leading to another room. “My grandson. Vasilli!” she called toward the back.

A moment later a tall, twentyish-looking man stepped into the main room. Dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, his chest and shoulders were thick with muscle. His head was shaved, his face smooth. He carried an air of military bearing in his posture, his confident stare. He looked completely out of place in the old bookshop.

Nairne instinctively clutched the book tighter, resisting the urge to retreat a step. Nothing about him seemed outwardly threatening, yet something warned her to keep her distance from him. She didn’t like the way his eyes locked on her. Hard eyes that missed nothing.

He glanced down at her hands, wrapped around the cool leather binding, then back up. His gaze traveled over her face a bit too carefully for her liking. As though he was memorizing it, cataloguing every detail. Her heart rate increased under the weight of that stare.

“Ah, you’ve come for the book. You like reading about fairy tales?” he asked in heavily accented English. “I bet I know some you’ve never heard.”

Uncomfortable, Nairne looked away and dug her wallet out of her coat pocket. “How much do I owe you?” she asked the woman.

The lady named a price and insisted on being paid in cash. Nairne gave it to her, suddenly glad she wasn’t paying with her credit card. If the nephew was interested enough in her, he could have used it to dig into her personal information.

Stop it. You’re being stupid. No one cares about what you’re doing except for you. And it’s just a book, not a national treasure.

“I have told Vasilli all about the Empowered,” the old woman said in slow, careful Lithuanian, appearing eager to offer more help. “He can translate the stories into English for you.”

“Oh, that’s very kind, but—”

“I’d be more than happy to talk with you further,” he added. “I don’t often come across a foreigner so interested in our folklore.” His words and tone weren’t inappropriate, but there was an undercurrent to them she couldn’t put her finger on. Something disturbing that made internal warning bells go off in her head.

“Thank you, but I’ve got to run.”

His stare never wavered from her. “Where are you staying? It’s a small town. I can meet you at your hotel or somewhere else tonight if you want to hear some of the stories I’ve learned. I’m sure a well-educated woman like you would find them fascinating. Most people who come here don’t pay any attention to the old legends, let alone have the capability to read old German.”

Nairne kept her smile neutral. “That’s too bad. I appreciate the offer, but I have to work tonight.”

An interested gleam entered his eyes. “Researching something?”

She frowned as a tremor of unease snaked down her spine. This guy was really starting to creep her out. It was almost as if he knew about what she was working on. Which was crazy.

She tucked her wallet back into her pocket then offered a polite smile at the woman, making certain she avoided eye contact with the grandson. “Just satisfying my curiosity about some things I’ve heard. Thank you for your time.” The bell tinkled overhead again as she stepped outside, a cool breeze teasing her cheeks.

Putting on her sunglasses, she cast a covert glance back inside. The man was still at the counter, watching her with an almost predatory interest. Despite the warm day, Nairne suppressed a shiver as she turned to walk back toward her hotel. She’d intended to find a sunny spot on the beach and read, but something told her that guy might follow her. Was she just being paranoid? Possibly. She wouldn’t be the first academic to be accused of guarding her research to the point of paranoia. As a matter of habit she never told people what she was working on.

Nairne shook her head and picked up her pace, eager to get back to her room so she could dive into her new resource. She was close to finding something. Something big. Her analysis on the DNA sample information from the lab was almost complete. The woman Dr. Mackintosh had tested, whoever she was, bore a strikingly similar genetic pattern to her own. And his, since she’d found his results amongst the files, along with some fascinating information on his family tree. Their ancestry was the same, comprised entirely of Baltic German and Celtic roots, and Nairne was close to finding out if their family trees intersected back in the 1700s. While she couldn’t be certain, Nairne was willing to bet the similarities didn’t stop there.

Once she got back to Vancouver, she intended to contact Dr. Mackintosh and find out who the woman was. Nairne wanted to meet her. Maybe she was the key to unlocking the secrets Nairne had uncovered with the parchment. Only she and a handful of others even knew it existed. Now more than ever, she believed she was on the cusp of a breakthrough in her research. All the evidence supported her theory that the Empowered existed, that she might be one of them—in a diluted form anyway.

A tingle ran up her spine. The book in her hands might be exactly what she’d been looking for these past two years.

* * *

“Great job.” Liv smiled down at her youngest student as the last note faded, then ruffled her short hair affectionately. “I can tell you’ve been doing extra practice.”

Melissa nodded and smiled shyly, her eyes alight with pride. Something Liv had never seen in those brown depths before. No doubt due to her sorry excuse for a father, who Liv hoped she’d never lay eyes on again.

The girl started to close the piano lid, but Liv stopped her. “No, I think I’ll play for a little bit tonight.” God knew she needed the distraction music always offered her.

Melissa swung down from the bench. “Can I listen until my mom gets here?”

“Sure.”

Letting out a long exhalation, Liv let some of the residual tension out of her shoulders and set her fingers on the cool surface of the keys. As her hands stroked over them, the music began to flow. One of her favorite pieces. Haunting. Beautiful. An old Gaelic song about a man with eyes as blue as the Irish Sea and hair black as a raven’s wing.

Like Daegan. His name was Gaelic for black-haired. She’d looked it up.

As she played, in her mind’s eyes she pictured him walking along the cliff over a stormy sea while the waves crashed against the rocks below. Watchful, alert. Waiting for something. Longing for it.

She desperately wanted to be what he searched for.

A sharp rap at the door interrupted her thoughts.

While she swung around on the seat, Melissa jumped up and went to the door. Liv got up to pluck the girl’s coat from the rack as the door swung open.

Melissa’s face brightened with joy when she saw who stood there. “Daddy!”

Liv’s suddenly nerveless fingers froze around the jacket while the blood drained from her face.
Aaron.
She smothered a gasp and jerked back a step, waiting for the inevitable wave of pain to engulf her. It didn’t happen.

“Hi, sweetheart.” Aaron went down on one knee to hug his daughter. The affection seemed genuine, not illicit in the least, despite her earlier concerns. Both of those things surprised her.

Aaron squeezed Melissa, then looked up to offered Liv a sheepish smile. That’s when she saw the bruised and swollen side of his face. Jesus, had Daegan done that? It looked bad, like he might have a broken cheekbone. Not that she cared. He deserved it.

“Hi,” he said.

No pain. No swirling bands of color around him. And that contrite expression on his face seemed all too genuine.

“Hi.” The muscles in her face felt stiff. Part of her attention strayed to the panic button on the keypad next to the doorframe. If he made one move toward her she’d hit it.

But he merely stood and lifted Melissa in his arms, settling her on his back piggy-back fashion. “I, uh…wanted to apologize.”

She stared at him, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. Hearing.

“I’m sorry if I ever did anything that might have upset or um, scared you.”

Liv barely kept her jaw from falling open. What the hell was this? The guy obviously had psychiatric problems. There was no other explanation for his polar personality shifts. She eyed Melissa in concern.

But the girl beamed down at her from her perch, her little face lit with happiness. A daughter’s pride for her father shone in her eyes. “Daddy came to my house this morning and promised to take me for an ice cream if I did well at my lesson.”

Okay, now she was worried. Aaron had gone to his ex’s house? As far as Liv knew they weren’t even on speaking terms, and the wife had a restraining order preventing him from setting foot on her property.

Aaron raised a brow at Liv. “So, how did she do?”

The man hadn’t been much of a father to Melissa thus far. She had no idea what Daegan had done to him, but Liv would love to believe Aaron had finally decided to make an effort with his daughter. Melissa seemed thrilled by his sudden change of heart. Liv wouldn’t be the one to extinguish that light burning in the little girl’s eyes.

Finding her voice, she forced herself to reach out and offer the jacket, along with a stiff smile. “She was perfect. Better than ever.”

Aaron smiled up at Melissa. “That’s my girl.”

“Bye, Miss Farrell.” Melissa waved from atop her father’s shoulders as he walked down the path to the car waiting at the curb.

Shutting the door behind them, Liv turned to lean her back against it, exhaling deeply. Rubbing a hand over her forehead, she took a couple more slow breaths. Besides breaking his face, what had Daegan done to the guy? He’d sworn Aaron would never bother her again, but to Liv it seemed like he’d undergone a complete personality transformation. Or was it merely another ploy to draw her in and make her let her guard down?

Not that it mattered. She didn’t intend to let the man anywhere near her ever again. Standing on her front doorstep was still too close for her liking, so she might have to recommend another teacher to Melissa. She’d be sad to lose her favorite student, but her safety was more important to her than an extra few hundred dollars each month.

Her cell phone shrilled from the bedroom. Dashing down the hall, she picked it up, checked the display. Her heart squeezed when she saw Daegan’s number. She set her jaw and put a hand on her hip as she answered it. This had better be good. “Hello?” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t very happy with him.

“Hi.” At least he sounded miserable. That made her feel marginally better.

“Where are you?” She didn’t bother to hide her hurt or anger in her voice.

“Home. You okay? I thought I felt…”

“What?”

“I thought maybe you were scared a minute ago.”

He’d felt her reaction to Aaron? Was that even possible? “Aaron showed up to pick up his daughter from her lesson.”

Tension crackled across the line. “Did he do anything?”

“No, and I didn’t have a headache like I did the other night, either. What did you do to him?”

“I punched him in the face and threatened to kill him if he ever hurt or scared you again. Then Vaughn stepped in and rehabilitated him.”

“What? How?”

“I’ll explain it later. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” He cleared his throat. “And I wanted to hear your voice.”

She sat down on her bed, lonelier than ever. Just hearing his voice made her heart beat faster. “So why did you leave this morning, and why the hell have you been avoiding my calls?”

His deep sigh was full of regret. “A lot of reasons. The most important being that I have to keep you safe.”

“Yeah. So you had an alarm system installed without asking me, then took off before I got back.”

“Liv, this is really complicated.”

“Because you’re
making
it that way. How is being apart supposed to protect me, let alone convince me I want to be bonded to you?”

Daegan let out something close to a growl. “I hate it, too, but there was no other way for me to give you time.”

“Time for what?”

“To think about everything, adjust to it all.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Daegan, I don’t know
what
to think right now. How could you just leave me after last night? After marking me without even saying anything? I had to find out from Cade.”

“I know, and I’m sorry.” Another pause. “Leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Maybe it was stupid, but she believed him. “So what does this all mean now? That you’re bonded to me but I’m not bonded to you?”

“Basically.”