Embrace Me At Dawn (18 page)

Lucan completely ignored his best friend’s pretty speech. “You’re going with the china doll excuse again, Anka? Can you stand here and tell me you don’t need anything we once shared?”

She swallowed down a searing lump of need, struggling against the lonely, hungry part of her that still yearned for him. “I’ve said I don’t need any of it.”

Defeat crossed Lucan’s face, slumped his shoulders. A surge of blistering fury followed. “Then it’s a damn good thing I don’t want them, either.”

He lied. Because she’d hurt him. Anka didn’t dare blanch, but his words gouged her, emptying out a hole in her heart and pouring pain inside.

“
When did your period start, then?” Shock challenged Lucan before turning to Bram. “Got a tampon for him, mate?”

Lucan stiffened, blistering hatred seizing him in a single lunge, complete with a look that could kill. “You’ve changed her. Ruined her. You’re going to pay. I will kill you if it’s the last thing I do.”

Shock smiled like a shark, all teeth and bad attitude. “Not if I kill you first.”

“
Shut up!” Bram yelled.

Beside her, Shock raised a hand, looking like he intended to hurl a lethal dose of magic right at Lucan’s chest. He let it fly with a snarling battle cry.

Nothing happened.

With a curse, he looked up to find Felicia standing there, wearing a Mona Lisa smile. “Simon suggested that you might be having a bit of difficulty finding your way back to the office. Shall we?”

Shock flung his hand down and grabbed her by the elbow, dragging her toward Bram’s lair. Behind her, Lucan followed, a carrot Fate dangled in her face, offering her everything she still wanted—but kept just out of reach.

~ ~ ~ ~

She no longer wants me. She no longer wants me. She no longer wants me
.

The mantra resounded in Lucan’s head over and over, a clanging echo, jarring him each and every time the ugly truth raced through his brain again. She didn’t want him. How many times and in how many bloody ways did she have to tell him before his stupid heart finally understood and gave up?

As Shock dragged Anka away, clutching her in his meaty fist, he tried not to look. Tried not to plot murder. Maybe she preferred an emotionally stunted wankstain to a wizard who would do anything, even lay down his life, for her.

“
She didn’t mean it.”

The soft, feminine whisper curled into his ear from somewhere just behind him. With a scowl, he turned to find Felicia standing there with a hopeful little grin.

“
What do you mean?” he demanded.

“
Anka, saying she no longer wanted any of the things you mentioned. She was lying. I could tell all the way from the next room. The stench was terrible. She wants them badly. She wants you.”

That was good news, the best he’d had all day. But…why lie? Why rip his heart out—again—in front of an audience? Why make a spectacle of his feelings and his memories of their mating?

“
I see the questions on your face. I have no answers. I can only say that she lied.”

His gaze swerved back to Anka. Did Shock have something he held over her head that forced her compliance?

Before Lucan could ask anything more, Felicia departed upstairs. He entered Bram’s office, which had been cleared of the rest of the Brethren and their mates. Bram would make sure that Shock could read none of their minds. That parlor trick shouldn’t work with Felicia in the manor, but somehow, for some confounding reason, Shock’s ability to read minds could be dampened by nothing.

Putting as much distance as possible between Shock and himself, Lucan resumed his spot on the far side of the room, by the window, where no one—especially Shock—could get behind him. He didn’t need to be stabbed in the back again.

Anka settled into the corner and tried to make herself small. Felicia had sworn that her refusal of him was a lie, and her body language certainly bore that out. His former mate scooted as far away from Shock as he could. The leather-clad wizard was having none of it, sitting on a nearby ottoman and dragging her onto his lap. She opened her mouth to protest. One of Shock’s brows rose above those bloody stupid sunglasses. Anka closed her mouth, lips pursed grimly. Lucan looked away.

She didn’t love Shock, and for that, he had to be grateful. Of course, that didn’t mean she loved him either, but he wasn’t giving up on her again.

“
Thank you for coming, Shock.” Bram stood behind his desk, using it like a podium. He opened the negotiation with precision and purpose.

“
Now that I’m here, what do you want?”

“
It’s not that simple. First, you’re a dodgy sort. You happen to know a banshee?”

Anka stiffened. Lucan supposed that she might not appreciate her current lover being maligned. A little smile lifted the corners of his mouth. Anka might not like it, but he surely did.

“
Dodgy? Fuck you. You called me here to ask about banshees?” He cocked his head and released a long-suffering sigh. “Name me one person who knows one. Why the fuck do you ask?”

Bram smiled tightly. “Just curious. Before we join Mathias in any effort to destroy Morganna, we need a few assurances.”

Shock settled back, leaning against the wall, his arm still snugly around Anka’s tiny waist. She relaxed a bit against him. “People are dying, and you want to negotiate?”

“
When did you become a fucking humanitarian?” The words were out of Lucan’s mouth before he could stop himself.

God, why couldn’t he just shut up?

Bram pinned him with a warning glare. “Are you helping this effort?”

He shook his head. “Sorry.”

“
Excellent.” Bram turned back to Shock. “Yes, I want to negotiate. If Mathias is so concerned about magickind, too, he can agree to the terms quickly, and we’ll get started. First, he must give us full and complete information about Morganna. Everything he knows, we’d bloody better know as well. If I find out he’s hidden anything at all from us, no matter how minor, I’ll cut him off cold, and he can find some way to put Morganna down by himself.”

Shock shrugged. “I’ll tell him. Doubt he’ll have a problem. I’m sure, however, that he’ll want similar assurances. You have to puke up everything you know about killing Morganna.”

Lucan looked up and found Bram staring, those blue eyes of his speculating about how little they could trust Mathias. Very little, Lucan was sure. But what choice did they have? And not for anything would he think about— No. He would not risk tipping Shock off. Instead, he pictured a fantasy. He started with one he’d had many times: Shock sliced wide open, his blood spilling all around as he lay on a street every bit as dirty as his soul and watched his life force leaving him as the birds swooped down, one by one, to eat away at his entrails in a slow, painful death.

“
You wish,” Shock growled.

“
Indeed, I do.” Lucan simply smiled.

“
Focus, damn it!” Bram pounded a fist on the table and waited with seething impatience until everyone did as he demanded.

“
Bossy wanker,” Shock muttered under his breath.

Anka elbowed him through his leather coat. He grunted, looking mighty displeased, but said nothing.

“
If I agree to share my information with Mathias, he must agree that he cannot attempt to use it without my knowledge or consent. He must also not act alone. We will be a team, which means he will abide by the same rules that govern everyone else in this effort. I lead it. That’s non-negotiable.”

Shock wore a smile that snarled “you must fucking be kidding,” but he merely said, “I’ll pass it on.”

“
Anyone he wishes to talk to about Morganna or the information we have must be someone I approve. He cannot share what we know with whomever the hell he wants.”

“
Yes, yes. We’re all on the same team, playing by the same rules, blah, blah, blah. Is that it?”

Bram looked ready to spit nails, but managed a halfway cordial nod. “I suppose I don’t need to tell you that he should decide quickly.”

“
He came to you, wanker. I think he understands quite well.”

“
The moment she’s captured or put down, all hint of being bosom buddies is over. No more of this ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ tripe.”

“
Precisely.” Shock looked as if the negotiation amused him.

“
I still say this idea is barking mad.” Anka couldn’t hold her silence any longer. “Mathias will stab you in the back.”

“
Not if we stab him first.” Bram smiled, then directed his attention back to Shock. “So, once he’s agreed to all the terms, have him contact me for a meeting. We’ll swap information and make a plan.”

Shock gently nudged Anka off his lap and rose to his considerable height, scraping huge palms down his leather-clad thighs. “Am I done being your errand boy for the day?”

“
I think so, yes.”

“
Good. Then fuck off. Anka?”

He held out a hand, as if he expected her to go with him. Lucan looked away. He couldn’t stand to see Shock touch her in any way.

And because he’d been stupid enough to think it, Shock smirked and wrapped a meaty arm around Anka’s tiny waist, dragging her body against his, then lowering his head for a noisy kiss. She struggled, pushed, but Lucan closed his eyes. Every muscle in his body tensed with the need to save her, but the fucking image of Shock’s mouth on hers had burned into his brain. How could he help a woman who refused to be saved?

Suddenly, Shock growled, then turned an accusing stare down on her. “Not happening, Anka.”

“
You might control my body, but you will never control my wants,” she said softly.

Then she cast a gaze in Lucan’s direction. In that split second, he saw a lifetime of longing before she looked away. Lucan’s heart sped up. A sweet flush reddened Anka’s cheeks, and he’d give anything to know what she’d thought about him that had shoved Shock away.

With a growl, the big wizard in leather pushed away from the wall and headed for the door, leaving Anka behind. Lucan knew he should leave well enough alone. He and Shock would never be friends. Even the thought made him laugh. But he wouldn’t let a golden opportunity to needle the bastard go by.

He followed Shock out of the room, holding Bram at bay with a raised palm. Reluctantly, Bram backed away with a roll of his eyes.

“
What is it?” Shock turned and confronted him. “You’re itching to say something and even trying to mask your thoughts. If you weren’t as inconsequential as the stains on your knickers and you were actually worth the effort, I’d dig into your head, but I’m fucking tired of your delusions about taking Anka from me—as if you can even begin to give her what she needs. So spill out whatever you’re dying to tell me.”

“
I’ll give her
everything
she needs.”

Shock threw back his head and laughed, the sound cutting and caustic. “You’re going to tie her down? Take a flogger to that perfect little arse? Leave welts where there was only smooth skin? Never. Your delusional rubbish otherwise is only a joke. If you care about her, you’ll see that you can’t help her now and shove off.”

When Shock turned to leave the house and teleport away, Lucan grabbed his arm, fingers gripping harshly. “I’m man enough to give her what she craves, as well as the love she deserves. You’re too emotionally stunted to help her there. I’m putting you on notice. I had her for over a century. I’ll have her again.”

~ ~ ~ ~