Zurlo, Michele - Torment [Daughters of Circe 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (21 page)

“You could have told me you kidnapped a human to hold for a witch’s ransom.” Shade’s fist clenched, an aggressive indicator Soren didn’t miss.

“I know how much you love to love witches,” Soren said. His head cocked to one side, listening to something Shade couldn’t see.

But Shade didn’t need to see the demon to know it held Soren captive. “Fight it, Soren. Don’t do this. You hate yourself when you do this. Give Riley to me.”

“I haven’t hurt her,” he said. Frustration strangled his words. He had fought it. He was fighting it. He was losing the battle. “I don’t want to hurt her. I don’t want to hurt either of them.”

“Then give her to me. I’ve already hidden the witch where you can’t find her. Let me hide Riley as well.” He wanted to mention Torrey as little as possible. Soren might be distracted by his demons, but those little devils didn’t miss much. They’d make sure he made connections Shade hoped were missed.

Soren sniffed the air, and then he knelt to finish cleaning up the living room. “Hiding her at your house isn’t protection, Shade. And the least you could do is help put everything back. I know you don’t have a compulsion against cleaning or Mom would have coddled you that way, too.”

Apparently, the fact that Alethea had originally been hired to pick up after Shade didn’t qualify as coddling. “I’ll pass. What makes you think the witch is at my house?”

Soren’s grin was ironic. “I smell her all over you, and not just her power. You’ve had her in your bed. That’s a pretty impressive feat considering how much she hates wolves right about now.”

“Just tell me where she is, Soren. She’s innocent, and she’s human. She has no power, nothing for you to covet.” Shade made no move to help Soren. Shoving a pile of books off the sofa, he sat to watch his brother clean. It was a small penance.

“Have you seen her?” Soren asked. The question didn’t require an answer. “She has the face of an angel and the body of a Siren.”

“You’ve used that line before,” Shade said. “It wasn’t original then, either.”

Soren looked up sharply, his brows drawn together as he listened to his demons. “But I mean it this time. Do you think she’ll have me after I kill her sister?”

Shade shook his head. “I think the odds are against you. This is another reason to give her up, Soren.”

A vase flew across the room, shattering against the far wall. Shade stared after it, unimpressed.

“Do you think I want to do this, Shaden? I found her by accident. You said go to the human cities. You said to see how they were different. I found cell phones and computers that are portable, and I found a witch.” Soren fisted his hands in his hair, pulling at the shoulder-length blond strands as if it would quiet his tormentors. “Not just any witch, but a Daughter of Circe.”

Shade was across the room in one stride, his hand to his brother’s throat. “You knew what you found, and you said nothing to me. You gave me no chance to help you, to help
her
.”

Soren made no move to remove his brother’s hand. The misery in his light green eyes was undisguised. “I made sure she wasn’t Hope. I used that name first, when I tried to extract her power. It didn’t work.”

“Did you honestly think she would come back with the same name?” Shade dropped his brother. He didn’t have it in himself to kill Soren, not yet.

“No,” Soren said, straightening his shirt. “But I figured she’d know me.” His eyes widened with uncertainty. “She isn’t Hope, Shade. She can’t be Hope. I can’t do this to you twice. I can’t do this to her twice.”

Hope surged in Shade, but he kept it hidden. “Then give Riley to me. Fight your compulsion long enough to let me take her away from here. I promise, you’ll never find either of them again.”

Footsteps sounded in the hall. Shade’s head jerked in that direction. He hadn’t scented anyone else in the house. How was that possible?

“I cast a charm to cover her scent,” Soren explained as an auburn-haired beauty with the face of an angel stepped into the room. “I didn’t want to leave her in a cave somewhere. She might catch cold.”

“I’ve cleaned up the kitchen,” she said, stepping into Soren’s embrace and planting a kiss on his cheek. “What did you want for dinner?”

Shade stared at them both, incredulity straining at the lips he pressed tightly together. Why lock a captive away in a room when it was so much easier just to cast a charm on them to make them think being there was voluntary?

“Hi,” she said, throwing a welcoming smile in Shade’s direction. “You must be Shade. I’m Riley. I hope you’ll stay for dinner.”

Shade stared deeply into Riley’s brown eyes. They were so like Torrey’s. “Steak sounds great. Rare, if you don’t mind.”

Riley’s eyes glazed over, and she instantly obeyed Shade’s command.

When she was gone, Shade turned on Soren. “That’s low, even for you. Does she think she’s in love with you? That’s rape, you know.”

Soren’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “I haven’t slept with her. She thinks we’re dating, though, so I can’t put her off much longer. She’s creative when she wants to be persuasive. And don’t get all high and mighty on me. You just put a charm of your own on her. Riley hates steak. She’s a vegetarian.”

“Another way you’re not compatible,” Shade said. Scooping a handful of clutter from the floor, he set about helping Soren put the room to rights. He needed to get Riley alone in order to remove Soren’s charms. “Did you take away her memory? Does she remember her dying mother or her sister at all?”

Soren shook his head. “She thinks her parents are off on vacation, and Torrey is at home, working and generally making a mess of her life as usual.”

“What about you?” Shade asked. With the two of them working together, the room was coming along quickly. “Does she know you’re a wolf?”

“Nah,” he said. “She doesn’t know Torrey’s a witch. She thinks it’s some kind of free-spirit, I-love-the-Earth, religious kind of thing. Why scare her?”

As they moved to their father’s study, a room that used to be off-limits to them when they were little, Shade made his pronouncement. “That’s not right, Soren. How long do you plan to keep this up? Torrey is worried out of her skull.”

Soren replaced books on a shelf. “I have another ten days until the full moon. I think I can hold out until then. Having Riley here helps. She calms me.”

“You’re lying to her, and you’re planning to sacrifice her sister. She’s going to hate you when she finds out the truth.” Shade filled the desk drawers with the hundreds of pens scattered on the floor. How many pens did a person need? His father’s compulsion led him to be excessively neat. There was no explanation for the pens.

“She won’t find out from you,” Soren said. “That’s for sure.”

Shade recognized a threat when it was aimed his way.

Most of the house was cleaned by the time Riley called them both for dinner. Two large steaks, barely cooked, sat at either end of the long dining room table neither of the men had used since their mother was alive. Near the plates sat bowls of salad and little plates with baked potatoes on them.

Shade sat at one end and studied Riley, who seated herself in the middle of the brothers. Her plate featured a salad to go with her baked potato. He knew better than to judge her. Hope had been a vegetarian as well. He had been relieved to see Torrey scarf down a hamburger. Meat was a staple of a werewolf’s diet. It was how they were built.

She lit candles down the center of the table. In lieu of flowers, she had found evergreen branches to lend color and gaiety to the setting.

“This looks great,” Shade said. “Thanks, Riley.”

“It’s lovely, darling,” Soren said, reaching out to stroke the side of her face. She smiled and turned her cheek into the caress.

The affection was real, and that fact startled Shade. Both of them actually liked one another. This was going to be more difficult than he realized. Soren’s charm would be that much more powerful because Riley wanted to believe the fantasies he planted in her head. Great. Torrey was going to be pissed.

Riley asked polite questions as the meal began. She wanted to know where Shade lived, and what he did for a living. She mentioned the weather, and then she broke off sharply.

“I forgot the drinks.”

As she rose to get them, Soren waved her back down. “You’ve done enough, honey. Shade will get the wine.” To Shade, he said, “Choose something festive. Let’s break out the good stuff.”

Shade headed downstairs, to the part of the house that had been carved from the solid limestone rock that ran in large veins through the entire area. With no great care, he grabbed a bottle of wine and headed upstairs. If Soren really wanted to impress his guest, then he needed to remove the charms and do it honestly.

The rest of the meal progressed well. Shade said little. Every thought floating through his head centered around Torrey. He felt sorry for Riley. Her mother was dead, and she didn’t even know it. Telling her would set off Soren’s demons. Despite his words to Torrey, he wanted to settle this peacefully. He didn’t want to kill Soren unless there was no other alternative. There were still ten days until the first full moon.

After they ate, Riley served coffee. He knew it wasn’t poisoned because they all drank from the same pot. However, he felt the ill effects of something. Numbness permeated his mouth and chest. His thoughts were fuddled, and time began to bend.

Staggering to his feet, he knew he had to leave before Soren locked him in one of those stone rooms for the next eleven days. He had to get to Torrey. He had to protect her.

A strong hand closed around his elbow. Looking down, he saw it matched his own hands. Except for their coloring, he and Soren were remarkably the same.

“Hey there. You look like you’ve had a little too much wine.”

Shade faced Soren squarely. “This wasn’t the wine. You did this.” His brief absence from the table flashed through his head. The trip to the wine cellar should have been an obvious omen. Wolves were susceptible to so few herbs, all of them well known to Soren. “You did something to my food.”

“Why don’t you come and lie down?” Soren said. “I kept your room exactly the same for you.”

With a feral growl, Shade ripped his arm from Soren’s grip. Silver stained his eyes, and his teeth elongated. He needed to get himself under control. If he turned into a wolf tonight, he would head straight for Torrey. In his drugged state, he might resort to instinct and hurt her.

He didn’t remember leaving Lyton, and he didn’t remember how he got home. His only coherent memory was the fright in Torrey’s eyes when he fell through the front door and into her arms.

She dropped him. Not because she wanted to drop him, but because he was too heavy. It was either that, or they would both crash to the floor.

She crouched beside him to search his body for wounds. She found nothing. His skin, always warm to the touch, burned, and his breathing was labored. She pressed her wrist to his forehead. His lids opened and he stared, glassy-eyed, at her.

“Bastard drugged me. I got away before he could lock me up.” The words were slurred and mumbled, but Torrey made them out.

“What kind of drug, Shade? Maybe I can help.”

His grip on her arm was weak, and the little bit of coherence he managed disappeared as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Raising her arms as she had in the hospital, she commanded the water in his body. She visualized it flowing through membranes, pushing the poison out of his body. Nothing happened.

It took some pushing and shoving and more face-slapping than she liked, but Torrey got Shade up the stairs and into his bed. They both dripped with perspiration. Shade’s was from the fever; hers was from the physical exertion.

For her entire life, Torrey had been as tall as or taller than the majority of people she met. This was the first time she ever empathized with what life must be like for short people. Shade was a big man. Everything from his build to his attitude made him seem invincible. As she took a minute to catch her breath, she watched him labor to breathe, and she realized just how fragile life really was.