Dawning of Light (13 page)

Tanner walked into the room just as Cecilia shouted the last at her cousin. “He went to Tennessee,” he replied to the question she had asked his mate.

Cecilia whirled to face him. There was a spark of madness in her eyes. “Tennessee? Why? For how long? Where, precisely, in Tennessee?”

“He went to visit his sister and his parents. I have no idea how long he’ll be gone. He’s actually considering moving there, if you want to know the truth.”

“What? Why?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Tanner demanded.

Cecilia took several deep breaths and turned and walked to the window. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to keep from shivering. She wasn’t cold, so she could not imagine why she was shivering.

“I just—I’m just surprised, that’s all. I had no idea he intended to leave.”

“Neither did he, at first. He’s just going through some stuff in his head, right now. He’s never met his two nephews. My father would not allow him to visit them, when he was alive. You have to understand, even if the pack master was fucked-up, it’s hard for a shifter to leave his pack the way Finn did. He doesn’t feel like he has a place in the world right now. He’s just trying to figure out where he fits. I’m the one who suggested a visit with his family might help him get his head on straight again.” He paused and gave Cecilia a curious look.

“Besides, I thought you two hated each other?”

Cecilia shook her head. Hate was such a strong word. Especially in reference to a man she wanted to sleep with.

“So who have you assigned to Cecilia Duty in his absence?”

Tanner’s lips quirked. “You know he refers to it as
Cecilia Duty?
”

“Yes.”

Tanner sobered. Her tone did not invite teasing.

“Actually, I asked Dane to watch out for you. I know he isn’t the strongest male in the world, but he knows you well enough to mostly be able to keep track of you. You could make things easier on all of us by sticking around,” he suggested.

Cecilia shook her head. “Let him know that I will be heading to Tennessee at first light. If he wishes to accompany me, be ready at dawn. Although you can let him know that I am perfectly capable of getting there on my own.”

“What are you doing here, Dane?”

“You didn’t really think Olivia would not see through your attempt to put her off your plan, did you?”

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Cecilia grumbled. It was three o’clock in the morning, well before dawn, and she and Dane were standing in the pole barn located behind the beach house.

“Why are you going?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

Dane nodded. “As good a reason as any, when it comes to your heart, Cecilia.”

“What?” she asked, startled. What did her heart have to do with any of this? She was simply going to Tennessee, to talk to Finn. To find out if he intended to stay, or if he planned to return to the coterie. To see if she could somehow help him through whatever issues he was currently facing. Why she had such intentions was still beyond her own comprehension, but Cecilia had never let something such as the “why” of the situation stop her before.

Dane did not respond. Instead, he waved at the array of motor vehicles parked before them. “Which one shall we use?”

Cecilia eyed the sleek black-and-yellow motorcycle. Dane saw the direction of her gaze. He paled, his eyes filling with trepidation. “I have no earthly idea how to drive that thing. While I would not be remotely surprised if you did, I have to protest. If I must drive all the way to Tennessee, I would prefer to be wrapped within some semblance of protection, even if it is iron.”

Cecilia rolled her eyes. “It’s much too cold to ride a motorcycle right now,” she said. She pointed at a full-sized royal-blue truck. “That would better suit our needs, I think.”

Dane glanced at a small red sports car. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather…?”

Cecilia nodded firmly. “If it snows, we’re significantly better off in the truck. Are you certain you want to go with me?”

“It is not a question of what
I
want to do, and you well know it, Cecilia. Lisa is furious, just so you know.”

Cecilia arched her blond brow. “You truly are sleeping with her, then?”

“It’s more than simply sleeping with her,” Dane protested primly.

Cecilia could see that, at least from Dane’s perspective. Lisa had only lost her mate and then subsequently given birth to her second child, just about five months ago. As Cecilia understood it, she and her mate had been together for more than half their lives. Cecilia did not believe Lisa could have gotten over her mate that quickly. Not when she was also trying to be a single mother to a young pup and a newborn, as well as trying to adjust to life within the coterie. After her mate died at the hands of her pack master, Lisa had walked away from the only life she had ever known. If Finn thought he had problems, maybe he should talk to Lisa.

Or maybe not
, Cecilia thought. Lisa was the only female shifter of mating age living amongst the lightbearers. What if Finn decided he wanted to mate with her?

“I promise to return you all in one piece, as swiftly as I can,” Cecilia said to Dane as she climbed into the driver’s seat of the truck and tossed her small satchel into the extended cab.

Dane looked grim as he climbed into the passenger seat. “Swiftly being the operative word in that sentence.”

Cecilia laughed. “You don’t mind if I do not return you all in one piece?”

He glared at her and did not dignify her question with a response.

* * * *

“I could not help but notice that we have not yet heard a summons to a mating ceremony, Samuel.”

Samuel stood before the hooded lightbearer and willed his legs not to shake. He was a lightbearer, damn it. One of the strongest in their small community. The shifters said so, and those were two of the baddest guys he’d ever met.

“She left the coterie,” he blurted.

The hooded lightbearer sucked in a breath and shifted in his chair. “You are certain?”

Samuel bobbed his head, nodding furiously.

“Why? Is she going to consort with the humans again?” The tone in his voice left no doubt as to his feelings on the subject of consorting with humans.

Samuel switched from nodding to shaking his head. “I heard from one of the servants at the beach house that the shifter left too.”

“The shifter? The one who fancies himself mated to the lightbearer princess?”

“No. The other one. The other male, I mean. Finn. F-Finnegan Hennigan. He—he went to Tennessee.”

“And he took our Cecilia with him?”

A confused frown marred Samuel’s features. “No, actually. He left a few days ago. Cecilia just left last night some time. To go after him, I guess.”

“Why would she do that? I had been under the impression that you have been wooing her. As you pointed out, the two of you have a history, and you swore it would not be very difficult to convince her to mate with you.”

“I didn’t think it would be,” Samuel admitted. “It’s that shifter. He’s always around, always watching her. It is damn near impossible to get her alone these days.”

“Every attempt to warn her away from him has only pushed her closer. Not surprising, for one like her.”

“Like her?”

Samuel liked Cecilia. He’d always liked Cecilia. They’d lost their innocence together, and although nothing else ever happened between them, she’d never looked down at him or criticized him or suggested ways he could be better. She simply accepted him. Just like she accepted the shifters.

He reminded himself—again—that shifters were the enemy. Even if they had taught him more about fighting in just a few short months than he’d learned for the entirety of his life thus far.

“Shifter lovers. Human lovers. Those who put aside our kind and give their magic to other beings. Lightbearer magic is meant only for lightbearers. Yet servants in the king’s household tell me his daughter freely shares her magic with that shifter who claims to be her mate. It is bad enough that she allowed him to plant his seed inside her, but to share her magic as well? It’s blasphemy.”

Samuel heard several murmurs of assent from behind him, but he had no idea who agreed. It was always so dark when he called on the Chosen One, the name the mysterious lightbearer insisted they use when speaking to or about him.

Samuel had no idea precisely who was hidden under that thick, heavy cloak with the cowl hood. He wondered, not for the first time, how the man maintained his magic, when he was always hanging out down in this dark cellar, covered from head to toe with sun-blocking clothing. Lightbearers needed light to survive, didn’t they? It was the reason their kind were called
lightbearers
.

“Go get her, Samuel. Bring her back to us.”

Samuel blanched. “You—you want me to leave the coterie?” He’d never left the protection of the magical wards in his entire life. It was one of the only rules he intended to
really
enforce, once he and Cecilia were mated. The outside world was far too dangerous. Lightbearers were only truly safe hidden away from everyone else.

“That is precisely what I want you to do,” the Chosen One’s icy voice whispered from beneath the folds of his hood. He rarely spoke above a harsh whisper, yet his voice carried the weight of one who shouted to get his point across.

Samuel swallowed convulsively. “Wh—what if she will not return?”

The Chosen One was silent for a few moments. When he spoke, his voice was colder than Samuel had ever heard it before.

“If you cannot bring Cecilia to heel, I will have to take drastic measures. My last two warnings failed to do their job, it appears. But those warnings were just that. My next display will not be a warning. Someone will die. If you do not want it to be Cecilia, then bring her to our side, Samuel. Do you hear me?
Bring her to our side
.”

Felicia looked great. So did his parents. His two nephews were rambunctious, laughing balls of nonstop energy. Felicia’s mate, Ben, treated her with the reverence of one who utterly adored his mate. Everyone was happy.

Their pack was pretty cool, too. Finn met the pack master, Daniel Foxx, and they’d hit it off almost instantly. “Your family has fit in well here,” Daniel assured him. “They’ve told me about your tracking skills. We could use one like you in this pack.”

The invitation was there.

His sister had introduced him to a number of her friends. He couldn’t help but notice that most were single females. And quite good-looking.

Too bad I left the condoms at home
, he thought when Felicia’s friend, Gayle, lightly flirted with him. Then he caught himself, realized he’d referred to the coterie as
home
.

That isn’t my home
.
But this could be
.

Then Gayle made some comment that gave him the impression that she was a submissive female, and he thought,
I could never live like that for the rest of my life
.

Cecilia invaded his thoughts, which pissed him off and made him homesick. That pissed him off because, damn it, the coterie wasn’t his home. It wasn’t even a shifter pack, for the love of Fates. It was a lightbearer coterie that just happened to be run by a shifter.

That thought made him wonder how Tanner was fairing, running the coterie and continuing the training without Finn to back him up.

“It’s going okay,” Tanner said when he called. “But I won’t be upset if you tell me you’re coming home.”

Home
.

“How is everyone?”

“Olivia’s getting bigger, so now she thinks she’s fat. My mother and her mother are arguing over how to remodel the room that we are going to use as a nursery. Oh yeah, and Cecilia’s on her way to Tennessee, to see you.”

“
What?
”

“You know how Cecilia is. She gets bored easily, and she didn’t have you here to keep her on her toes.”

“You let her come to Tennessee, alone?” Finn’s tone was incredulous.

“Nope.”

* * * *

“Dane.”

“Hello, Finnegan.”

Cecilia stood next to him, staring at Finn as if she had never seen him before. She looked damn good. Too damn good. His body reacted the way it always did around her. He was glad for the sweatshirt that hid the instant and painful erection pressing against the front of his jeans.

“What are you two doing here?” Finn asked. What would she say? What did he want her to say?

“Ask her,” Dane said, jabbing his thumb in Cecilia’s direction.

“Are you enjoying your visit?” she asked before he could repeat his question. She stood on tiptoes and tried to peer over his shoulder. Finn stood in the doorway with his hand holding the door partially closed. Not exactly welcoming, but then again, he hadn’t been expecting Cecilia and Dane to chase him halfway across the country.

“Sure,” he replied.

“I imagine it is nice to see your family again,” she said primly.

He wondered what she was getting at. “Sure,” he said again.

“Family can be so oppressive, though,” she said with a wrinkle of her nose. “I doubt you want to spend
all
of your time with them.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “What are you trying to say, Cici?” He deliberately used the nickname she would only allow a select few close friends and relatives use, although he wasn’t sure if he was trying to rile her or if he just liked to refer to her in such an intimate way.

“Are you planning to stay?” She blurted the words and then looked startled, as if she hadn’t really meant to say them out loud. She did not even acknowledge his use of the nickname he knew Olivia had given her when they were just toddlers.

Finn felt just as startled as she looked. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

Her features drooped, as if she was suddenly sad. Finn cocked his head to the side. “Why? Do you miss me?” What the hell would he do if she said yes?

“I do,” Dane said with a sniff, as he pushed past Finn and strolled into the house. “Keeping track of Cecilia is the most infuriating task ever. I really wish you would return and take the position back.” He paused in the middle of the living room and looked around.