Tara (26 page)

Alaric nodded and tucked it into his pocket. “We will. We’ll call when they’re all dead.”

“Now
that
sounds like a warrior.” Kiernan laughed. “He’ll fit in just fine.”

“Don’t take too long, okay? It’s been over two thousand years since I’ve seen Tara. It would be nice to catch up.” Neala smiled a little, and then Kiernan pulled her against his chest.

“See you both soon,” Tara waved and they both waved back.

“Warning,” Kiernan grinned and then the two of them disappeared. Actually disappeared. As in, one moment they were there, and the next – nothing. Empty space. Alaric’s head ached trying to process it, so he turned away from the spot to focus on Tara’s blue eyes.

“I hope you don’t regret staying with me.”

“As long as you don’t regret wanting to keep me in the first place.” A smile tugged at her lips and he hugged her tight again, his mind spinning with his options. There were too many, and his head was pounding. Every option he could think of seemed to run up against Luca, and how could he defeat the man who had taught him everything he knew?

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tara smiled as Alaric glanced over at her from the driver’s seat, they’d been driving for a couple of hours after they had rushed to get out of the flat he’d rented. He had spent most of the drive on the phone, but for the last thirty minutes there had just been road noise and the constant worry in her head. “We’re almost there, dolcezza.”

“Where are we going?” she asked, her stomach still full of knife-edged butterflies as the world whipped past them.

“To a secondary location a friend told me about. We’ll crash there for a few hours, and then we’ll head north into Switzerland.” He reached over and gripped her hand. “I’m going to keep you safe, I’ll figure this out. Luca just needs time to think this over and then he’ll change his mind. I know it.”

“Right,” she whispered, but inside she didn’t have the same faith that Alaric had in his adopted father. How he had even retained that faith with everything he’d learned about the man… she wasn’t sure. It had to be that he loved him the way a son would – hopelessly hopeful that his father figure couldn’t be as bad as the evidence suggested. That he couldn’t be just another heartless person willing to buy and sell her. He was blinded by his memories of the man who had saved him when all was lost, and so there was no way that Alaric would accept the situation. The fervor with which people came after the Faeoihn. Tara had seen the hunger firsthand at live auctions, and at meetings, where she was traded over and over like some kind of rare good.

Which, unfortunately, she was.

She had to swallow down the bile in her throat, because he was doing what he could. He was running with her, against the will of the very man he cared so much about, and pointing out how insane it all was would have been meaningless.

No matter what - Neala and Kiernan had given them a gift and she was going to enjoy it – he loved her, and she loved him, and they had both said it out loud. Tara tightened her grip on his hand and stared out at the lights as they sped by on the highway, wrapping herself in the knowledge that he was still alive, still with her, and they
hopefully
had the will of Eltera on their side.

Not like she’d made her presence known since she’d accepted Alaric’s blood and healed his arm.

“There! Look up ahead, that’s where we’re going.” Alaric released her hand and pointed at a small hotel nestled between a restaurant and another set of buildings. He smiled over at her and nodded. “We’re going to be okay, dolcezza, we are.”

“I know, sweetheart.”
My sweet knight
. Tara made sure she was smiling as he turned off the highway and into the carpark. When the engine cut off he shifted to stare at her, his vibrant green and brown eyes pinning her to her seat.

“This is going to work out. I have friends in France, and in a few days we’ll be with them, and they can fly us anywhere we want to go. Pick somewhere, anywhere, and that’s where we’ll head next.”

“Japan?”

He laughed, leaning closer. “Why Japan?”

“I just learned to speak the language, I figured I might as well test it out.” She smiled a little as he laughed.

“That’s right. Good choice. So, in the morning we’ll head into Switzerland. I’ll ditch the car, and we’ll get another one to take us into France. In a day or so we’ll be in Japan, and you can see Tokyo. It’s incredible.” He kissed her then, his lips melting against hers, and for a brief moment all of her worries slipped away. Tara wrapped her arms around his shoulders pulling him close as he leaned into the kiss.

He’s alive. We’re safe. It’s going to be okay.

When he pulled back she could see the hope in his expression, and she wanted to echo it, wanted to feel what he felt, but nothing in her life had told her that hope was anything more than a mirage. “Wait here for a second, I’m going to check us in.”

“Okay.” She made herself smile again as he climbed out of the car, but it crumbled as soon as he shut his door and walked across the concrete. Rather than preparing for battle, they had spent the last few hours running, and now adrenaline rumbled through her veins, unspent. Her leg bounced, and her fingers toyed with the hem of her skirt, because what she wanted to do was plant a knife between the ribs of whoever had threatened him. She wanted to scream at Luca until he recognized the torment he was putting Alaric through, until he relented.

Now who’s being foolish?

Tara growled and buried her face in her hands, pulling her knees to her chest. The last few days had been some kind of fairy tale, a glorious respite in a long string of bad days and worse nights. He cared about her, he wanted to protect her, just like some knight in an old story – one where the hero was blind to all the dangers around him as he rushed towards the damsel.

‘
Damn it all
,’ she cursed in her head, shifting anxiously on the leather seat. It was like he didn’t take their enemies seriously, didn’t accept the threats as real risks. He had done his best to avoid being specific about who was coming for them, about what they had said, but she could guess. She’d heard it all before, and she knew they wouldn’t stop. They’d never stop.

Alaric tugged his door open and she lifted her head, turning on a bright smile as he shook a key in his hand. “Come on, let’s get inside.”

Soon they were unlocking the door to their room, the chill in the air cutting through her thin clothes, and he guided her inside to block out the frigid night air. Alaric moved blearily towards the bed and she followed him as he kicked his shoes off and ripped the sheets back to sit down. “I think I need about ten espressos in the morning.”

“The restaurant next door probably has some.”

“I’m sure they do. You okay?” He patted the bed next to him and she sat down, slipping her heels off and wishing she had something easier to run around in.

“How are you so calm, Alaric? After everything that happened today, after everything you found out about -”

“I’m not calm.” He slid his hand into hers, interlacing their fingers as he gripped tightly. “My head is probably the most chaotic it’s been in more than a decade, but I can’t let it affect me. I have to keep it together, I have to be strong.”

“That’s not -”

“Listen. I’ve promised to keep you safe, and I will. Even if that means I have to protect you from Luca himself.”

“I don’t want to come between the two of you, Alaric. He’s like your father.” She shook her head, letting out a sigh. “I’d give anything to see my father again, even for a few minutes. I don’t want to be the reason you lose the only parent you have left.”

“
You
are not coming between us, his
decisions
are coming between us, and he’ll see that eventually. I’ve known him a long time, and he’s a good man. He lives by a code, just like I do. We do a lot of bad things in this line of work. We kill people. We hurt people for information. We’ve stolen and destroyed things – but I refuse to believe he’s this kind of evil. An evil man wouldn’t have saved a hopeless twelve year old boy.”

“You’re right.” She nodded, trying to take a deep breath to push away all the doubt that threatened to drown her. “Of course, you’re right.”

“We’re just going to stop for a few hours so we can sleep, then we’ll keep going. It’s going to be alright, I doubt anyone has even been able to make it into Milan yet.”

“Can you promise me something?”

“What?”

She laid her hand over his, and he tightened his hold a little further. “If it comes down to it, save yourself.” He tried to speak but she ripped her hands free and shook her head. “No, listen, if things go wrong, if they catch up to us – you save yourself. I can’t watch you die, not like I did with Leonidas. It’s been over a millennia and I still have nightmares about that day, so you promise me. Promise me you will
not
do that to me.”

“Tara…”

“Promise me.”

“I can’t promise you that!” He snapped and stood up, pacing in front of her. “You want me to promise that I’ll hand you over to some monster who wants to use you like everyone else has in your life? You want me to stand by and watch him take you away? No!”

“Alaric, please -”

“No. If anyone tries to take you I’m going to kill them. All of them.” The blaze in his eyes was what she knew Kiernan had seen. A warrior’s heart. Brave and hopelessly single-minded.

“And what happens if we can’t kill them all? What happens if there are too many?”

“Then I’ll die protecting you.” He dropped to his knees in front of her, his hands landing at her waist as he looked up at her. “I know you love me, and I know you don’t want to see that happen, but I love you too and watching someone take you from me, knowing you would suffer, would be like watching you die. You can’t ask that of me.”

There was a rock of raw emotion choking her, and she couldn’t respond as he stared into her eyes. It had been foolish to fall in love with him. It had been foolish to let him in, to let him see her, to dance with him and play music for him and let him think she was a real girl. Because real girls could fall in love, they could have boyfriends that didn’t have to watch what they said, and they could live happily ever after.

Tara wasn’t a real girl.

“Why did you fall in love with me?
Why?
”

“I think that’s something only the gods can answer, but I don’t regret it at all, dolcezza. I never thought I’d love anyone, I wasn’t sure I was capable of it after the life I’ve lived. But you?” Alaric stood and kissed her softly, tucking himself against her as his arms wrapped around her. “How could I
not
fall in love with you? You’re strong, so incredibly strong, and you have this light inside you that sometimes I feel like I might burn up just being in the presence of it. You keep it locked away, but it peeks out sometimes. When you smile, when you dance, when you play the violin. It wouldn’t matter if Eltera herself told me to leave you, Tara, I’d tell her the same thing I told Luca.
No
, not in a million years.”

A rough laugh escaped her and she realized there were tears on her cheeks again. “She probably wouldn’t take that very well.”

Alaric shrugged, a smile lifting the edge of his mouth. “Well, I don’t really care. I’m just a foolish, mortal, wannabe knight, right?”

“You would have been a perfect knight.”

“Did you ever meet one?” He asked, and she shook her head.

“No, but I’ve read the romanticized stories of them. I know that they were mercenaries too, blades for hire, but to be considered a knight you did have to follow a code.”

“I’m just a knight with a gun then.”

“You’re my knight with a gun.” She kissed him, and it was warm and soothing, before he pulled back and his jaw cracked with the force of his yawn. Stifling a laugh she let go of him so he could move all the way onto the bed.

“Let me hold you while we sleep?” He asked, his arms opening as he shuffled back to make room for her, and she couldn’t resist the request. As soon as she lay down he curled around her, his breath brushing over her neck. “I love you, Tara. So much.”

“And I love you,” she whispered. Alaric fell asleep fast, his arm relaxing around her waist, and she knew he had to be exhausted. Unfortunately, her mind was still spinning. The deep breaths against her neck were calming, but nothing would quell the tension in her belly.

Tara wiped her face against her arm as tears slipped again, but she kept her breathing even. Years of practice had afforded her that skill at least. Sleep was tugging at her, urging her towards the black, but she had one last ditch effort since Alaric was not going to budge.

‘Eltera?’
she asked in her mind, praying as best as she could even though she was out of practice. ‘
I love him, and he loves me. You see that don’t you? Wherever you are, you can see that, I’m sure of it. All I ask is that you keep him safe. Keep my foolish, gun-toting, all too mortal knight safe. I’ll suffer through whatever you ask of me as long as he’s alive. As long as he gets to live. Please.
’

The only answer she received was the sound of the heater kicking on, rattling as it pumped warm air into the space, but nothing could reach the cold spot inside her. Doubt was still her ever-present companion, and it refused to leave even as she gave in to sleep.