Undying Hope (13 page)

Quinn moved up behind Haven in the line and wrapped his hands around her shoulders. He lowered his head. “Relax. I’ve taken care of everything.”

She made an unlady-like snort. “You keep saying that. You can’t take care of everything.”

“I can and I do. Stop worrying.”

She laughed and leaned back into him. “I’ll stop worrying if you stop taking care of everything.”

* * * *

Donovan dropped his chin onto her shoulder and took in a long drag of her scent. He loved how she smelled. She didn’t cover over her own fragrance with some kind of floral soap—though he was sure his home soon would be filled with the scents that always accompanied a woman—she had this light, feminine earthy aroma that intoxicated him and left him throbbing to get inside of her. “Then I think we’ve reached an impasse.”

“I figured as much.” Her tone was disgruntled as they moved forward. “I am going to make you nuts.”

“No. You’ll give me better priorities,” he said before he knew what was going to come out of his mouth.

She slowly turned until they were facing each other. “How so?”

He shrugged. “I’ll take care of what you’re worried about first. Everything else can wait.”

She flashed him a bone-melting smile before she stepped up to order her food. Donovan tripled the order for himself.

They sat in a quieter corner of the mall food court where she was able to see the arcade where Bastian played video games and ate fried chicken like a normal teenage boy. She carefully unwrapped her burger before looking at Donovan. “You’re not always going to be able to put me before everyone else.”

“Why not? My father did it that way,” he said as he set out his meal. “He always said my mother’s intuition was the guide he had for leading our people.”

Her brow furrowed as her head canted. “Was she ever wrong?”

“What is it?” Concern flooded his system. His teeth gritted together. This hyper-reaction was like being in the middle of an angsty teenage drama with the highs and lows of his emotions because the
treòir
had to add to whatever minor feeling he had in the moment.

“Just something Nadia said. She said I needed to follow my intuition. Maybe there is something to following instincts after all.” She bit into her burger. Her eyes closed as pure bliss brightened her face. She swallowed. “You know what? I haven’t had a juicy burger in a long time. I know I shouldn’t, but this tastes so good.” She snagged a fry. “Sorry. What if my intuition is wrong?”

“Then it’s wrong,” he said while studying her. “The world is imperfect. No one can make all the right decisions all the time.”

She giggled. “This coming from you?”

“You’ve got me. I’m the only one who must be perfect, but only in specific regards. All other times, I am free to make the grand blunders the human species is prone to make.”

“So then, there is some human in you?”

“Aye, my mother was a human. Like yourself.”

They ate for a little while in silence. He loved watching her. She was peaceful and wanted the world around them to be the same way. As much as he would love to give that to her, complete peace wasn’t possible. Pandora had opened her box, and all the ails of the world could not be stuffed back inside because Lilith had destroyed it. The world would always need him.

“So then, human mates are normal for the Undying?” she asked suddenly.

“Aye,” he said with a chuckle. “We actually weren’t able to discover the reason until this century.”

She neatly folded the burger wrapper and then stuffed it into the fry box. “That’s a little odd.”

“Not really. Genetic diversity. That was hardly a topic when the Celts were still living in mud huts.”

“Huh. That actually makes sense.” They went silent again while Quinn finished his lunch.

Haven leaned over the table. “Bastian thinks he should be staying with Ean Maverick.”

“I think that needs to be modified a bit. I think having him stay with Nadia is the best option, and I can have Maverick stay at the compound to start his education,” Donovan said, while he cleaned up his side of the table. “Maverick has a unique circumstance that I don’t believe would be beneficial for a boy of Bastian’s age.”

* * * *

“Is he dangerous?” Haven’s voice hitched up. There had to be a better way to get through these first few confusing days than to be on a rollercoaster she couldn’t get off.

“No.” Quinn started stacking everything onto his tray. “Did you study the legends of Mor Ean Corr in high school?’

“No way!” she said in perfect teenaged fashion as she jumped out of her chair with excitement. “He’s like one of the greatest Celtic legends ever. It was said that he could make the Earth shake and a forest get up and walk away.” She cleared her throat as she sat back down and leaned across the table to whisper. “He’s real?”

Quinn laughed. “And you get to meet him. That last tale of Vortigern, the warlock, taking out the clans Ean protected is true. Instead of giving into his
treòir
and leveling all of Britannia, his father, the original and oldest Earth Warrior, showed him how to suppress his emotions completely until he finds his lifebond. Most of the time he’s rather good at faking them, but when training Undying males, well, let’s just say, he forgets there are moments of compassion needed for our younger generation.”

“Oh my,” Haven said as she looked over at the arcade to see what Bastian was doing. She winced. Girls. It was only a matter of time before he started to notice them, but they always got him into trouble. “I think we should go get Bastian.” She got up and grabbed the tray. “Is there any way to help Ean?”

“Find him his lifebond,” Quinn said as he walked over to the garbage can with her. “Until then, we just have to understand he can be a little odd at times and make accommodations for him.”

“That’s still so sad.”

He took the tray from her and threw out the contents before putting it in the receptacle. “He will feel again, and every emotion he couldn’t process will come back to him.” His gaze went to Bastian. “He will remember his students, and he will feel for them as he should.” His attention turned back to her. “That’s why we help him now, so he doesn’t look back on this time with deep regrets because he was a complete bastard toward everyone he cares for.”

“I’m going to need a long time to process all of this,” she said.

He leaned down and brushed his mouth along her jaw. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

Her head tilted back as she moved in closer to him. Her gaze met his. “I do think we need time to be alone.”

“Brilliant idea.” There was much relief in his tone. “You get Bastian, and I’ll go pull the car around.”

“You’re sure? It’s cold out there, but we can walk with you.”

The look he gave her said there wasn’t a way in hell his lifebond was going to be cold for a second longer than was absolutely necessary. “I’m sure, but there is no need for all of us to be cold.” Quinn stopped in front of her and bent down to kiss the top of her head. “I’ll meet you out front.”

“All right.” She had a slight pang as she watched him walk away.

This was almost too good to be true. Malls and food courts were a normal, family type thing to do. The dream with Quinn became possible—if anything to do with Quinn could be classified as normal—and she was able to stop being neurotic long enough to get everything making sense in her head. Everything about him was so much larger than life.
It was difficult to process how both Quinn and the world existed around him.

He was the Undying Cadeyrn. The king of people so powerful she knew they were capable of killing warlocks. She’d heard of the meirlocks doing it. Quinn wasn’t meirlock, but he was Undying, and he was supposed to be their strongest. She let out a slow breath. She was going to be the mate of a man who could be the strongest on Earth.

“Hey, Haven?” Bastian said next to her.

She was startled and, with a slight jump, snapped her head up. Then she forced a smile. Bastian was too young, no matter what he was, to bear the ancient power and the problems with the Black Rose. “Hey, you. We need to get going. Quinn will be waiting out front for us.”

Bastian let out a wistful sigh and gave the flashing lights and beeping sounds—and several girls in short skirts—a forlorn look before he shoved a fist full of coins into his pocket and followed her back to the food court. “Dov said he’d get me any game system I want.”

Haven arched a brow. “I bet he did. We’ll discuss it after we’ve talked about getting you enrolled in school.”

Bastian looked at his feet. “I like that cyber school idea for human information, but I think I want to do what the other Undying kids do.”

Haven winced but managed to keep from committing a mortal sin against the teenager—hugging him in public again. “I’m sorry.” She should have remembered that. “But we can still talk to Quinn about how to handle your education before we talk about mindless video games.”

A flash of unexpected excitement lightened his young face. “Oh, sweet! I’ll be trained by one of those guys, won’t I? I mean, how cool would that be that I get trained by them!” Then he started with a long list of names she’d never heard before. Quinn and Bastian must have already discussed it while she’d spent hours in the dressing rooms.

Haven put her hand on his shoulder to stop him. She chuckled. “I am glad you’re so excited, but I have no idea who half of these people are.”

“Don’t worry,” Bastian said. His movements became quick as he moved forward, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “It would be like learning math from Einstein or astronomy from Galileo. I mean, Maverick is the son of Demek. Demek was the Original Earth Warrior. He could move freaking mountains before the time-shift. I am like the coolest kid ever. Thanks for being Dov’s lifebond.” He kissed her forehead. Haven was left staring at Bastian as he babbled on and on about exactly what caliber of cool he was going to be.

“Come on, cool kid,” Haven said on a dry note. “You can continue to pat yourself on the back for your good fortune while we—” She stopped talking when she felt the unmistakable presence of Mason. She whirled around, looking above the heads of everyone in the crowded food court, and latched on to Bastian’s wrist when she saw Mason walking toward her. “We need to run.”

“Haven!” Mason’s voice boomed out.

No! No! No!
This was not happening. If she ran, it was only going to be worse. Mason hadn’t liked it when she’d run from him. Her head told her feet to flee because Quinn was waiting for her just outside the sliding glass doors, but they stubbornly remained in place. A violent shiver ran down the course of her body. She shifted her weight to run from the bastard who only wanted to hurt her. He was all blond hair, tawny skin, and blue-eyed gorgeous, but Haven knew better. He was a golden devil.

“You best not run, darlin’
.
”
Mason’s voice was in her head. His eyes locked on to hers.
“I don’t need to be touching you to compel you to do my bidding.”

Haven wanted to freeze up with the terror icing through her body. She shoved Bastian toward the escalators leading to the exit and Quinn. “Run,” she commanded him, but he swung around and planted his gangly body between her and Mason.

Surely Mason wouldn’t cause a scene with this many humans around. The large man quickly crossed the food court. He loomed over Bastian.

“Get out of my way, boy.”

“No,” Bastian snarled.

In a split second, Mason lifted his arm and backhanded Bastian. The boy went stumbling off to the side.

Haven screamed as she lunged forward. Her body connected with Mason’s, shoving him back a step. “You leave him alone!”

Mason pushed her back. Haven landed on her butt next to Bastian. Everyone in the food court stopped to stare at them. Haven glanced at the security guard who had lifted his radio to call for backup. Mason shook his head. The guard lowered his radio.

Damn it!
She should have known the Black Rose would see her here and report to Mason immediately. Quinn’s powerful presence had given her a false sense of security. She scooted close to Bastian and tried to ignore the panic welling up inside of her. Not wanting to give into the rising fear, she squeezed her eyes shut tight and projected out for all she was worth.
“Quinn, Mason is here!”
And she hoped the telepathic communication worked, because she wasn’t exactly sure how to make the link with Quinn connect correctly. Then she ignored Mason while she checked Bastian to make sure he was all right.

The boy sat on the floor growling at Mason. “Get away from us.”

He crouched down in front of Haven. “Well, well, wife. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“We never made it to the altar,” she said. “I am not your wife. Leave us alone.”

He reached out to grab her chin when the floor under her started to tremble minutely. Mason’s head snapped up. Blazing fear flashed in his eyes as he stumbled backward a step, righting himself to get away from what was coming up behind her.

“Cadeyrn!” Mason said with a snarl.

“I wouldn’t touch her if I were you.”

The sound of Quinn’s voice was chilling. His usual warm, buttery cadence turned cold and brutal. She hooked Bastian’s wrist and started scooting backward toward the only safety she had.

Mason’s lip curled in a snarl. “She is my lifebond, Cadeyrn. I suggest you check the laws on what exactly my rights with her are.”

Quinn knelt down in front of Haven. His gaze moved over the bruise on the right side of Bastian’s face. His glacier eyes met with Haven’s for one dark moment before the irises flared blood red. Power vibrated the air around them. A gentle hand helped Haven to her feet. “Help the boy,” he said. Dark humor twisted the unusual graveled sound of his voice as his attention finally turned to Mason. “Let’s see. Haven, do you accept this man as your lifebond?”

Mason growled. “You better answer correctly.”

“Of course not—” she started as she helped Bastian up.

Before she could finish and say that Quinn was her lifebond, Quinn put up his hand to silence her. Then he was laughing softly, but the sound held an ominous note. “Now, tell me the truth, Mason.” The glow of his eyes flickered from red to gold. “Your lifebond just rejected you. You know what that means. Are you lying about who she is to you?”