Deceptive Lord (Lords of Bondage) (29 page)

“Is that the plan?
To invade and kill all humans?”

“No, not at all.
That scenario is how the Flourdans will perceive the situation.
The truth of the matter is that the hybrids could care less about taking over human territories.
They do not want it.
There is no shortage of land in Asstrumnia, and any disputes over territories are over hybrid territories.
We do not covet human lands.
Some of us may covet human females, however.
A few skirmishes will provide sufficient bounty.
There is no need for actual war.
However, the future teems with images of war.
The Romans are a greedy lot and they want what we have.”

Drest captured her in his arms.
“Time to go now.”
They were at
Drest’s lodge in minutes.
“I’ve never seen Ninian that riled.
I wonder how much he experienced while underneath the portal.”

“What do you mean?
You think he saw us together?”

“No, the images would be gone.
The physical sensations probably lingered.
There was probably lust in the air.”

“And on the sheets.
I cannot believe he rested upon the bed that we had just used.”

“The bed lies beneath the portal, so he had to lay there.”

Eden sat on the sofa.
“You are stuck with me after all.
I think we are
both being punished for something.
So, what wil
l you do to get rid of me now?”

“This is your home now.
Why would I wish to get rid of you?”

“You made it clear that you didn’t want me.
You were mad at me for drawing
those
pictures
.
So, how did you get stuck with me?
”

“I want
ed
to keep
you.
I enjoy
being with you
.”
He didn’t want to admit that he felt obsessed with wanting her, that he could not stop remembering the feel of her tight sheath around his cock.
He didn’t wish her to know that when he touched her, he was sometimes assaulted by unwanted images of biting into her throat.
It was getting
harder to resist the urge to mark her, but he hoped that once he satisfied some of his pressing physical urges, the urge to brand her would diminish.
He also wasn’t ready to admit to experiencing painfully disturbing feelings at the thought of her being with another.

***

The more
Drest
thought about Eden’s original story, the more he wondered about its veracity.
He kept having dreams of her in Avenal.
They were pleasant dreams, which was strange because he didn’t have positive memories of his time there.
He had spent two days in hell; that was what he remembered.
He could not deny that Eden seemed to have perfect
recall of some details of his two days in Avenal.
If the memories were false, someone went through a lot of trouble to get such good results.

The next day, Drest made a brief visit to the druid fortress to pick up some more paper work.
He was relieved to find Ninian in a calmer state of mind.
He spoke with Ninian and Ciaran about druid business before broaching the topic of Eden.
“
I do not recall seeing
Eden
at Avenal.
That seems strange to me, that I would not have met her at all when I was there for two days.
I remember meeting the other sister, Briella.
I wouldn’t have forgotten meeting Eden.
Where was she during those two days?”

“Portia Fairley has told us a few things about Avenal.
She’s been asking about Eden since they arrived.
She did confirm that Eden is the sister of the
countess
,” Ciaran said.

He had forgotten the sacrificial virgin, the other Flourdan taken from the ambush.
“I’d like to speak with her.
Can you bring her here?”

“Perhaps that can be arranged.
A brief visit only, as she cannot be kept away from her duties too long.”

Drest was suddenly curious to learn more about Eden.
He still didn’t believe her claim of being abducted from the Avenal mansion, as Boadacea had confirmed that Eden had never previously stayed at the lodge.
He was more confused than
ever, as he had not seen any evidence of any dishonesty or duplicity on Eden’s part.
He couldn’t explain how or why she would possess false memories.
He hoped a conversation with Portia would enlighten him.

He returned to the lodge and spent the rest of the day with Eden.
Luckily, she didn’t seem too upset with him about the bondage
activity
under
neath
the portal.
She only complained that her family would think of her as a traitor.
He told her if they cared about her, they would not wish for her to be tortured.
Certainly it was better to be pleasured than tortured, right?
To get her mind off her worries, he took her to an Asstrumnian theatre in one of the larger hybrid cities.
After seeing the
play, they ate at one of the finest restaurants, the
Gilded Palate
.
When they returned to the lodge, they stayed up late that night talking
.
When it was time for bed, she made no protest when he asked her to stay in his bedchambers.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The next day, the druids arrived with Miss Portia Fairley
.
Portia ran into Eden’s arms and started crying tears of happiness, as she was excited to see her friend.
Eden noticed that Portia wore a similar slave collar around her neck, but at least she looked healthy and unharmed.
“I’m so glad to see you.
Are they treating you alright?”

Portia disengaged herself from Eden’s hug and surveyed her friend.
“They haven’t hurt me.
What about you?”

“I’m fine.
Why do they call you the sacrificial virgin?”

Her innocent face lit up in flames.
“I have to participate in some of their rituals, but since they require me to be chaste, I at least do not have to worry about being raped.”
She looked at the band around Eden’s neck and feelings of guilt flitted across her face.
“I am sorry.
I’m sure you haven’t fared as well.”

“I haven’t been raped, Portia.”

Portia turned her head and noticed the golden haired male.
She
assumed
that he was the owner of the lodge, the bard by the name of
Drest Kavanaugh
.
Her jaw dropped in shock when she recognized him.
“Lord Kane Woodcock.
What are you doing here?”

Drest remembered seeing Portia a few times at Avenal.
He greeted her politely.
“Miss Portia Fairley.
It is nice to see you again.
To answer your question, I live here.
I am from this fine land.
You may call me Drest.”

Portia looked from Drest to Eden and back again.
“Oh my.
Eden is being kept here as your slave, right?”

“You could say that,” Drest said.

“Did you come to Avenal to steal our women?”

He watched her closely.
“No.”

She met his look boldly.
“But you took Eden from Avenal, did you not?”

He looked perplexed.
“That is part of what we need to discuss.”

Ciaran looked pointedly at the slave collar around Eden’s neck before returning his gaze to Drest.
“Is she still angry with you?”

“I strive real hard to make her happy.”
He smiled
as he met Eden’s eyes.
He turned his gaze toward Ciaran.
“I’m glad you came.
Let us take a seat so we can get down to business.”

Drest took a seat between Ciaran and Ninian on the sofa.
Portia and Eden sat in chairs opposite them.
“Tell me what you remember from my visit to Avenal, Portia.”

Portia relayed her account of the events.
She repeated much of the same information that had already
been gleaned from previous interviews.

“Where was Eden when I was at Avenal?” Drest asked.

Portia looked at him in confusion.
“Eden was with the rest of us, in Avenal.
Why do you ask?”

“Tell me what you remember about her exact whereabouts.”

She tried to replay the memories through her mind.
“Eden was with us during Nefertiti’s nightly debaucheries.
We all watched you because you were new to the harem.
Eden talked to you a few times.
When we went
to the salon afterward for refreshments, I saw you talking with her quite a bit.
You were flirting with her and she was acting rather
heedlessly.
I actually had to retrieve Eden from the sofa because the two of you were sitting too close to each other.
What else would you like to know?”

“I do not remember seeing Eden in Avenal.”

She looked at him in confusion.
“You would remember her.
When Eden disappeared the same day that you vanished, we all thought that the two of you had run away together.
Eden was missing for weeks.
She turned up in a Flourdan field.
We asked her what had happened to her, but she claimed she could not remember.
None of us believed her, of course.
She was here, wasn’t she?”

“I don’t know.
Continue the story.”

She took a deep breath.
“Well, Eden was moping about
the mansion for the longest time.
She seemed to have no interest in living and we were worried about her.
She went with us to Eros.
It was on our way back from there when we got ambushed.”
She paused to breathe and collect her thoughts.
“Actually, before we were ambushed by hybrids, we were threatened by a winged hybrid on the road.
I take it this winged hybrid is one of your guys?”

“
We call him Pablo.
We know him well.
Our people
have an arrangement
with their people,” Ciaran said.

“The winged hybrid threatened us and said we would have to pay a toll of female flesh.
It knew somehow that I was a virgin.
It said some pretty weird things to Eden, something about her having known different seed
.
It also said that she would breed hybrids,” Portia said.

“It knew that I had been marked and it said that it recognized the house,” Eden said.

Drest met Ninian’s eyes.
“We should verify this from
Pablo
.”

“That is all I know,” Portia said.

***

The next day, Drest went to meet with the winged hybrid
, Pablo,
in person.
Pablo
told him that he had seen the f
a
int mark of the Kavanaugh
bloodline on Eden’s skin.
He had to face the facts.
It appeared that he was the one with the manipulated memories, not Eden.
He still didn’t know why he was missing some of his memories.
The more likely scenario was druid involvement.
He didn’t know whether it had been forced on him or if he
had chosen
to have it done deliberately.
He met with Ninian and Ciaran; both druids had no knowledge of any druid involvement concerning him.
They
told him that they would generate a list of candidates who may have performed the deed.
He wished that he could speak with Brennus, but he was still missing.
That left Boadacea, who had denied knowing Eden previously.
At some point, h
e would have to confront
her to learn the truth about what had happened.

He returned to Eden.
He watched her with amplified intensity, searching for those details he had overlooked earlier.
He had given her his mark, which
suggested he had felt something more than attraction for her.
He didn’t believe he would have marked her otherwise.
He could understand how he may have fallen for her then, as he felt a growing attachment to her now.
He knew that it wasn’t just the great sex.
She appealed to him on a deeper level.
“I am sorry.”
Guilt weighed heavy on his mind and he felt that he had wronged her by not accepting her version of events.
“Show me again where I marked you.”