Deceiver's Bond: Book Two of A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life (44 page)

She snorted. “Incapacitated? You mean killed? Because he can’t be reasoned with or cajoled or bribed, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“No, I get that. But what would happen if he were, I don’t know, imprisoned by the djinn … or something like that?”

“As soon as Maeve learns of it, she would send another to take his place. And you can bet she’d try to find a way to fault the telepaths for not doing enough to aid Lorcán,” Kim replied.

“So, no matter what, we’re boned. Is that what you’re saying? The only sure-fire way to prevent a breach of the Compact is to let Lorcán take me.”

“Unless Brassal can call in enough favors to secure Kieran’s pardon …” She paused, looking grim, before answering, “Then yes.”

“There is an alternative,” Kieran said. Although everyone looked at him, his eyes were only for me. “We disappear for a time. If he can’t find you, he’ll eventually go back to the Otherworld and leave you alone.”

Kim’s mouth crooked to the side as she considered it. “A temporary solution at best, but it would buy you some time.”

I remembered Kieran’s scathing comment when he’d realized Maeve had left him behind. He’d told me I should have bonded with Vince instead of my demon lover, implying that if I’d done so, none of this would have happened. If Vince and I had been soul mates, Maeve wouldn’t have been able to bond with him.

I examined Kim. “What if I’m bound to someone else? Another sidhe who isn’t exiled, or, even, a part-blood?”

Kieran uttered something sharply in Silven before Kim could reply. “That is not an option,” he said, turning to me.

“It’s my life,” I replied. “I’ll be the judge of what’s an option and what’s not, but if you insist on keeping me in the dark, I’ll never be able to make an informed decision.”

I looked at Kim, ignoring Kieran’s angry expression, willing her to answer. I almost wished Brassal was back in command of her voice. I knew he would answer, regardless of what Kieran had ordered.

“It’s hard to say,” Kim replied hesitantly. “Lorcán is both crafty and ruthless. It’s possible he’d find a way to murder your soul mate in order to gain you for himself, although technically he’d be violating sidhe law in doing so.”

It seemed no matter what I might do to avoid Lorcán’s bond, I’d be putting someone else—if not all of humanity—in danger. I merely growled.

“But if Lorcán were to die in the act, his killer would be free from penalty,” Jackie added.

“So, that’s the only way Lorcán can be eliminated without breaking the Compact,” I said. “I need to be bound to a sidhe or part-blood who is in good standing with the King. If not Kieran, then someone else.”

“Yes, but I can think of no other Earth-residing sidhe capable of besting Lorcán in battle,” Kim replied before turning to Kieran. “You must take Lire into hiding before Lorcán arrives. I’ll do my best to keep these thoughts from Brassal while he tries to secure a pardon for you.”

She returned her gaze to me. “Brassal is unquestionably on Kieran’s side, but if Maeve were to corner him, he would be duty bound to answer and reveal your plans. I can only hope she doesn’t question me directly too, but I’ll find a way to deal with that when or if it happens.”

“But won’t Lorcán ask you where Kieran and I are, as soon as he shows up?”

“He can ask, but by then, I won’t know. Right?”

I examined her wide blue eyes. Something wasn’t quite right about her demeanor. “And if he asks if you knew about it ahead of time, what then?”

Her gaze shifted away. Jackie edged closer, expression somber, and rested her right hand at the small of Kim’s back.

I looked to Kieran. “What will he do to her?”

Instead of answering me, Kieran spoke softly to Kim in Silven.

Barely three musical words came out of his mouth before I stopped him. “Enough Silven. Quit hiding things from me.” I stepped in front of him, staring up into his eyes. “What will he do to her?”

He considered me, expression resolute, and replied: “He won’t kill her.”

“No? But what? What will he do? You told me he’s a brutal bastard. Will he hurt her? And not just her, what about Daniel and Michael? What if Jackie steps in to protect her? What then?”

Kieran’s jaw tightened. He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. I knew precisely what would happen. Lorcán would hurt Kim, in the hopes of getting information out of her. Jackie would undoubtedly try to prevent it and she’d either be hurt or killed for her efforts. The same thing would go for the telepaths.

If I disappeared with Kieran, they’d all suffer for it.

I glared at him. “We’re not hiding, so forget it.”

Before he could argue, I asked Kim, “Has Lorcán contacted you yet?”

“No. It will take several hours for him to reach Evgrenya’s lands, but the telepaths will work with their contacts in Europe to secure his passage to Seattle. He’ll probably arrive no sooner than tomorrow afternoon. The telepaths may be able to finagle some delays with getting him airline tickets and such, but too much dawdling will raise Lorcán’s suspicions.”

“I understand.” I looked at Daniel. “What’s going on with the rest of Invisius?”

He shrugged. “We’ve been too consumed with protecting you, finding Kim, and covering for Vince’s disappearance to do anything else.”

“A divided Invisius serves Maeve and the King perfectly,” Kim scoffed. “You should have acted quickly and decisively to bring them in line. Your misguided reluctance to use force has contributed to the deaths of the emissaries and continues to endanger Lire’s life.”

“An oversight that will be rectified
before
Lorcán arrives,” Kieran announced, eyes narrowed at the telepaths.

Daniel blanched, tipping his chin in acceptance, and said nothing.

Kieran went on, speaking in a tone only a fool would dare ignore. “We will deal with Invisius tomorrow morning. No one is to leave the building without my permission. Is that clear?” He received a nod from the telepaths and then looked at the two women. “Jackie? Kim?”

Jackie grumbled, “Yes. I hear you.”

Before I could ask whether they needed anything, Kieran grabbed my hand and yanked me out the door, slamming it behind us. The tension practically roiled off him in waves as he waited, mouth pressed into a threatening line, while I unlocked my apartment’s deadbolt.

As we walked inside, I tucked my keys back into my pocket and said, “Kiera—” but didn’t get any further before he seized my shoulders and thrust me against the closed door.

He smothered my startled grunt with a passionate, urgent kiss, the effort pinning my head in place while his hands secured my shoulders to the hard surface behind me. It only took a split-second for my brain to process his sudden move before my body was consumed by a scalding wave of desire that sent sparks along my skin and heated me from head to toe. When his tongue thrust its way past my parted lips, flicking aggressively over my teeth, I opened my mouth and accepted each of his hungry strokes with a groan of pleasure. Although he continued to press my shoulders against the door, the length of his body remained a frustrating six inches away from mine. The distance filled me with a desperate ache that burned for relief.

I skimmed my hands over his chest, down to his sides, and then hooked my fingertips into his waistband. I pulled at him, but he resisted, breaking our kiss and pressing my shoulders harder against the door. I gasped, breathing hard.

“This will not be borne,” he ground out. He glared down at me, the pupils of his eyes blown wide. “I’ll not see you coerced into bonding with Lorcán, nor anyone else. Do you hear? I don’t care how noble the cause.”

“Kieran—”

“He’ll not have you,” he growled. “I swear it.”

His fervor did wonderful things to my ego, but much as I wanted to believe it was solely for me, I knew it wasn’t. Past history factored in as well.

I brought my gloved fingers to his face, caressed his rigid jaw, traced them over his cheeks, and smoothed his furrowed brows. Releasing his breath, he closed his eyes and, body sagging, freed me from his insistent grasp. Before he could back away, I slid my arms around him and pulled myself tight to his body.

I rubbed my forehead against the swell of his chest. “If I’d just bonded with you from the beginning, none of this would be happening. I’m sorry.”

He uttered something severe in Silven and pushed me away. “You have nothing to be sorry about. This is not your fault, none of it. You could no more accept my bond as I could bring myself to force it upon you. We may as well blame our worlds for existing that they would bring us together in such a way.”

A loud knock interrupted anything I might have said. I jumped and came just short of cursing at the door. “God. Now what?” I muttered.

When I opened it, Kim stood alone, looking apologetic. “Brassal wants to speak with Kieran.”

“Oh. Okay.” I opened the door wide and then stepped aside.

“Do not wander off,
human
, what I would say concerns you too,” she ordered.

Kieran barked a string of words in Silven to which Kim responded with a brief but notable look of astonishment. Turning an appraising eye toward me, she replied stiffly, “Excuse me.
Lire
, please stay.”

There was no question about who was doing the speaking. Kim’s eyes and entire demeanor seemed to harden whenever Brassal was in control.

“You two left the room before we were able to complete our conversation,” she explained, impatience coloring her voice. “I will reach out to my contacts and tell them of Maeve’s overreaction. If you are bonded, it will be easy to attribute her actions to impetuousness. I have no doubt that just a few words spoken to the right people will pressure Maeve into rescinding her ill-advised order. If not, then I will seek an audience with the King who will surely countermand it.”

My head swam as I considered the implications.

If you are bonded …

Kieran again responded with a spate of Silven, to which Kim’s eyes narrowed angrily. She replied just as tersely in their language and then added, “It will be done and I will bear witness to it, anything less threatens to undo the Compact.”

Uttering something scathing, Kieran stalked away, obviously furious.

Bear witness to … what, exactly?

I stared after Kieran, wondering what I had missed in their foreign exchange that had him so upset. Was the thought of bonding with me so distasteful?

I wasn’t thrilled about it either, but not because I found the idea abhorrent. I was fiercely attracted to him. The thought of our mutual binding didn’t repel me—it both excited and scared the bejeezus out of me. There was so much we didn’t know about each other. For all I knew, Kieran could be psychotically possessive and prone to jealous rages.

I didn’t think that was likely, not based on what I’d seen of his behavior so far. Generally, the worst aspects of people’s personalities came out in situations of stress. Even in his fury after I’d caused Maeve to abandon him, he hadn’t behaved dishonorably. He’d been royally pissed off and convinced of his superiority, but he hadn’t been demeaning. And after seeing all those shriveled alien bodies outside Kim and Jackie’s house, it was clear he’d put his life on the line to help us when he could have easily escaped to save his own skin.

No. The thing was … when I got right down to it, what scared me the most was that I’d fall in love with him.

What if, like Vince, he couldn’t love me in return? A lifetime of being reminded of the inequity would be unbearable.

I turned back toward Kim, almost tempted to send her away, but I knew I shouldn’t. “Brassal. Kim. Sorry, but I need to touch you before I can invite you inside.” I began removing my gloves, explaining, “I don’t know if all part-bloods are unreadable like … like Vince was.”

Her eyes softened and I could tell it was Kim who replied, “I understand. I honestly don’t know either.”

When I’d tossed aside my gloves, she extended her hand and I took it. I hoped she didn’t notice my trembling.

My magic stirred but then settled without drawing any memories or thoughts into my mind. I cautiously lowered my shield and waited.

“If you don’t mind giving it just a minute?” I shrugged. “I need to be sure.”

“Of course.” Her eyes cocked to the side, as though she was listening to something at the edge of hearing range, and then she said, “Brassal wants you to know, if you wish it, he can deliver a message to Vince.”

I nearly dropped her hand before getting a hold of myself. “Oh. That’s, uh, nice of him to offer.”

I fought to keep my expression neutral as I considered what I might tell Vince—or if I even wanted to respond at all.

“I’m not sure there’s much to say at this point,” I said, finding it easier than I’d expected to keep my voice sounding matter-of-fact. “I guess … if you would … please tell him he shouldn’t worry. I’m not sure that’s something he’s doing, but you told me feelings about past … associations don’t just disappear after bonding, so, if he’s inclined to worry or feel guilty or whatever—he absolutely shouldn’t.” I shrugged. “You know, it’s not like we were committed to each other. We’d barely started dating. So, it’s really okay.
I’m
okay. I want him to be happy. If Maeve does that for him, then he should enjoy her and his time in the Otherworld.”

She squeezed my hand. “Brassal will give him the proper assurances.” She hesitated before leaning toward me and whispering, “You’ll find out sooner or later that I’m not exactly known for my tact, so I’m going to say this, even though I know it’s not my place.” She looked at me, mouth curved into a cheeky smile. “Hon, take it from me, Kieran is easily ten times the man.”

I grinned at her expression and released her hand. “Yeah, he has a way of growing on you, doesn’t he?” I glanced over my shoulder to find Kieran watching us, arms crossed tight, curiosity playing on his face. I stood back to allow her inside. “Please, come in.”

Kim’s eyes turned icy, and she strode past me, heading directly into the living room to face Kieran. She glared up at him, every bit as fiercely as a powerful sidhe stuffed inside a five-foot-three petite blonde could manage. At that moment, I had little doubt, in a hand-to-hand contest, Kim would hold her own.