“Please tell me you don’t want kids.” He managed to spit out.
Apparently I made a face, because Pamela shot a glare at me. “Who is this?” And then her eyes widened and she took a good look at him, his dark hair and pale gold eyes.
“Is this O’Shea?” She stumbled back, her face going bright red right up to her hair line.
“Liam, meet Pamela; Pamela, meet Liam. Now get out.” I shoved her out the door, locking it behind her.
There was a distant pattering of feet, no doubt to run off and tell everyone what she’d seen. Good grief, how much had she seen?
Liam’s arms came up around from behind me, his body fitting against mine. “Well, I suppose it could have been worse.”
“Yeah, how so?”
“Could have been Milly walking in on us. She would have asked to stay and join in.”
He nipped my shoulder and I spun to stare at him, shocked he would make light of what had happened with Milly. Laughing, he scooped me up and then tossed—yes tossed—me onto the bed. “I do believe we were interrupted, and just as I was getting to the good part.”
I lay there on the bed, staring up at him, gratitude and love flowing over me. I had him back, and this time there would be no letting go of him. This time, there would be no separating us, not for anything. Or anyone.
He slid on top of me, his hands and lips, tongue and teeth re-learning my every curve. I groaned, unable to stop touching him. I grabbed his ass and pulled him into me, gasping at the thickness of him as we rocked together.
“Rylee, this isn’t a race,” he murmured into my ear.
“I don’t feel you slowing down.”
He chuckled, and then kissed me, as I slid my legs around his hips, locking my ankles together, riding the sweet rhythm that pulsed between us. More than the physical connection, there was something more, something I hadn’t ever had. An understanding, a completion of my heart and where it belonged. With him, with Liam.
“Rylee,” he whispered my name, nothing else, just my name and the tears started up again. I couldn’t stop them, no more than I could earlier, but this time, it wasn’t the pain of loss, but the bittersweet knowledge that the rest of my life would be like this. Stolen moments of love, laughter and life fitting in the tight spots between the death, pain and loss. This was my future, not prophecies, not fate. Liam, this moment and all that it represented was everything I never knew I even wanted, and yet now I had.
Within all the darkness of my life, I had found the brilliant spot of light that pushed away the shadows. Even if just for a moment of two.
He kissed my tears away. “Let it out, you’ve got to let it out. That much I’ve learned. Holding it in will only make you crazy.”
So I cried and we made love, spending the night in each other’s arms. Not speaking much, except to speak words of love, just living. Breathing.
Healing.
I woke up in the early hours, well before dawn, before any light crept in through the big window. A nightmare, intense and lingering stealing any rest I had managed. Berget, Berget haunted my mind, an abscess of pain that at some point would need to be purged. Anxiety hummed along my synapses, and a sheen of sweat coated my lower back. I rolled to my side, sheets sliding down over my bare hip, baring my overheated skin to the cool air.
Liam slept flat on his belly, face turned to the side, dark hair unruly and curling over his cheek. I brushed it back, and he mumbled in his sleep, words that made no sense, and yet my heart thumped harder in recognition. Without waking, he reached for me as he rolled to his side, and pulled me into his arms, facing him. I pressed my cheek against his chest, listened to his heartbeat steady and strong. His arms tightened around me, so that there was no space between us; our bodies flush against one another. Peace, pure and soothing, flowed from him into me, calming the anxiety and pushing back the nightmare that had followed me into the waking world.
“Go back to sleep, Rylee.” He mumbled into my hair, his breath shifting the strands around my ear.
I curled in tighter to him, sliding an arm across his hip, feeling the scar where the Guardian had clawed him, where Alex had infected him. Safe in his arms, I closed my eyes, and let my fears go. In that moment, with him I knew that we were both where we finally belonged.
With a sigh, I lifted my face to his without opening my eyes and kissed him softly.
“You are the best thing in my life.”
He kissed me back, murmuring against my lips.
“Love, go to sleep. Because I have no doubt that tomorrow, something will crawl up and into your life that you or I will have to kill.”
I chuckled against his skin. “You know me too well.”
“That I do. That I do.”
Chapter 23
Liam watched her sleep, traced the scars on her body with his fingers in the early morning light. She’d brought him back from the wildness that the wolf had kept him tied with.
He let out a sigh, a smile tipping up the edges of his lips. Everything seemed simple now, an illusion for sure, if he knew Rylee’s life at all. They were together, as it should have been for a hell of a lot longer than it was, and between the two of them, they would take care of things. Of their pack. Again, his lips quirked upward.
Their pack. Laughing softly to himself, he stood and searched around the room. There were no clothes that would fit him, so he settled for a towel, wrapping it around his waist. His nudity wasn’t really an issue, though he suspected that the others in the house might not appreciate him strutting through in the buff.
His memories as a wolf were strange, disjointed. More about scents than anything else. Liam stepped out of the room, stepped over Alex sleeping by the door.
Much as he knew it was the werewolf’s fault he now carried the virus, he couldn’t really be angry at him. Alex was important to Rylee, and even Liam could admit that he liked the werewolf’s antics, saw the joy he brought into their lives like nothing else could. He crouched down, scrubbed the back of Alex’s ears.
“Hey, want to go for a run later?”
Alex blinked sleepily up at him. “Yuppy doody, Boss.”
Liam stood and strode down the hallway, freezing when he caught the scent of a witch. His head knew it was probably little Pamela, but the wolf in him wasn’t so sure. Moving very slowly, he worked toward the scent, tried to calm himself as he went. He would have to be careful around the young witch, making sure he didn’t lash out, that the wolf didn’t try to take control again. With his back against the wall, he slid down the hallway, the scent of witch intensifying.
There was more than one.
He wanted to shift, slide back into the wolf form. Fear grabbed at him. If he did, would he be able to shift back? He thought about Rylee, lying in bed, needing him. Not because of what he could do for her, but just needing him, for whom he was.
He dropped the towel and shifted into the wolf, the change taking him quickly and with ease. This time was different, though; he, Liam, was still in charge. The wolf was his now, not the other way around.
Creeping forward, his nose far more sensitive in this form, he picked up scent he would know anywhere.
Milly.
He fought the urge to go running toward the witch, tackle her to the ground and tear her throat out. If she was here, then she needed something, she was here to take something from them.
Trotting, he made his way the library door and peered in. Milly had her back to the doorway and she was reaching up, her hands lingering on the different books on the shelves.
How the hell was he going to stop her? A soft snuffle of a child’s tears brought his head around. Pamela was tied up in a spell, her arms and legs splayed out against the wall.
He couldn’t do this on his own. Spinning, he ran back to Rylee.
I was dreaming that Liam was back, that he had held me all night while I cried out the tears I’d been saving up. That his touch and heart had healed the worst of the wounds I had. I stretched in the bed, reaching out t
o find an empty spot, still warm where he’d lain.
Sitting up, I scrubbed my hands through my hair. The door creaked open and Alex crab-stepped into the room.
“Rylee better?” His eyes were full of uncertainty and maybe even a little bit of fear. I smiled at him.
“Yes, I’m better.”
“Boss good too?” He lifted his eyebrows.
I knew he didn’t mean … “Yes, the Boss is good too.” Very, very good.
The door pushed open and Liam, wolf Liam, stepped in the room, shifting with a spooky ease back to human.
“Milly is here. She has Pamela spelled in the library.”
“Fucking hell.” One full day, just one freaking day was all I wanted.
I didn’t have any weapons, and I hadn’t bothered to pick through Jack’s extensive collection. I jerked on a shirt and my pants.
“Alex, go get Doran. Quickly!”
Alex saluted and ran out of the room. Liam shifted back to wolf form. At least I knew he could shift back and forth now.
I ran out of the bedroom, down the hallway and skidded to a stop just inside the door.
Milly was bent over several of the tomes that Jack had hidden from me. In particular, the black demon book, and the violet skinned blood of the lost.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Her head jerked up. “I needed the information in these. I need to borrow them.”
I couldn’t stop my mouth from dropping open. “Are you bat shit crazy? This isn’t a fucking library and we aren’t friends anymore.” I moved sideways, touched Pamela and the spell on her disintegrated, dropping her to the floor.
“I’m sorry,” the kid said. “I thought I could take her on my own.”
Milly snorted. “Training will always win out.”
I walked over to her, ignoring the look of fear on her face. Yeah, I would kill her one day, but even I wasn’t cold enough to kill a woman who was with child. Shit, it would have been easier if I were that cold.
“You can’t have those books. End of story.” I yanked the Black one out of her hands and shoved the Violet one, pushing it off the table. If she wanted it bad enough, she’d have to turn her back on me.
She tipped her chin up and tried to look down her nose at me. “I chained your wolf once, I could do it again.”
Liam let out a snarl that filled the room with a menace even Milly couldn’t miss.
“You think reminding him of that is a good idea?” I stared at her, wondering how she’d gotten in here without anyone noticing. “You’ve been watching Faris jump the Veil, haven’t you?”
She didn’t answer me, just spun flicked her hand and the violet covered book shot to her hand. I lunged toward her. “Milly!”
She ignored me, and jumped through a slice of the Veil to the gods only knew where. It didn’t matter, not really. Her time would come soon enough.
Doran and Alex showed up about thirty seconds too late.
“She’s ducked out already?” Doran walked across the room and picked up the black bound book. “Was this what she was after?”
I nodded, dread filling me. “She got the violet covered one.”
Liam shifted, moving to stand behind me, naked but seemingly unashamed.
Doran grinned at us, eyes sparkling. “Well, well, well. What have we here? Rylee, I can see why you were so loyal.”
Liam leaned down and kissed my neck, right where the stitches were ready to come out, but his eyes stayed on Doran.
The Daywalker laughed and lifted his hands. “No need to mark your territory, Guardian. I know who she belongs with. It’s Faris you’re going to have to watch, not me.”
A growl slipped out of Liam. “Faris is not going to survive our next encounter.”
Doran snorted and waved at him. “Listen, you go and shave that crazy beard and get a shower in while I chat with Rylee.”
I shook my head. “No, wait here; I’ll get you some clothes, Liam. Try not to kill each other.”
I left the men there, trotted down the hallway and worked my way through the mansion to the other side where Jack’s quarters were. I knocked softly on his door.
“Go the fuck away.”
“Jack, I need some clothes.”
There was a muffled thump and then the door swung open. Jack glared at me. “Clothes? What the fuck do you need my clothes for?”
“Liam.”
His tri-colored blue eyes widened, and for the first time, I saw him shocked. He grabbed a set of sweat pants and an over sized t-shirt. I took them and ran back to the library, leaving a cursing Jack behind.
Doran and Liam sat across from each other. Liam had the brown book of prophecies in front of him, and Doran had the red. I handed Liam the clothes and he slipped them on. We spent the next three hours reading through the books, making an attempt to find what Milly had wanted. I took the black book, and read through the demon prophecies.
“Shit, I’m going to have nightmares tonight.” I pushed the book at Jack. Pamela was sticking close, as was Alex, who seemed to have decided that Liam was the freaking cat’s pajamas. Alex had his head on Liam’s knee, eyes flicking up every once in a while to see if Liam was paying him any attention.
It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. Liam was the first werewolf that had accepted Alex for what he was. Alex finally had a pack member just like him. Fuck, it made me love Liam even more at how easily he’d forgiven Alex for turning him. Then again, it hadn’t been just Alex’s saliva that had caused the problems.
“If you don’t quit making googly eyes at him, I’m going to puke,” Doran said, but he was smiling, his eyes laughing.
“You shut up over there or I’ll ship you back to Berget.” The room went very still and I let took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Let it go, I can freaking well crack a joke about my psycho sister if I want to.”
Doran just shook his head. “Don’t joke about that. I am eternally in your debt, which is a long time for someone like me. She carries not only her own memories, but the abilities and powers of both her adoptive parents. Which is part of the problem. She cannot handle all those memories and all that power. She is not to be trifled with.”
Jack leaned back, contemplative. “What about pied? We could fucking pie her, instead of trifle.”
Doran’s jaw dropped, and I laughed at his expression. “That’s an awful pun, Jack. I like it.”
That night, after making sure Pamela and Alex were settled, I made my way up to the rooftop to spend some time with Eve. I’d not been kind to her and I needed to make amends.
She eyed me warily and I waved her over. “I’m better. I’m sorry for the way I treated you, for pushing you so hard when you were hurt.”
“You didn’t push me, Rylee. I want to help. I just don’t know my own limits yet. When I have a chance, I’d like to train with Eagle again. I think I could still learn much from him.”
“Of course. I think that would be great.” I reached up and touched her wings. “Thank you, Eve. You are the best Harpy I’ve ever known.”
“What happened to you?” She ducked her head so she could look me right in the eye. “Something changed.”
Liam stepped out of the doorway and Eve saw him before I could answer. With a screech, she ran a hopping, wing flapping run over to him, dancing around him. “You’re back! I knew you were strong enough. I just knew it! Anyone who can fall off a Harpy and survive is tough enough to survive anything.”
He made his way over to my side as Eve launched into the air, circling around several times before soaring higher, using the thermals to lift her out of sight and behind the clouds, screeching her excitement into the wind.
“I didn’t think I’d made that much of an impression on your crew,” he said, moving up to stand beside me.
“You’re a part of our family. They’ve missed you. Or maybe just missed the fact that you can get away with yelling at me when they can’t.”
He laughed softly. “Not a
family. It’s more than that. A pack.” He slipped an arm around my waist.
“Hmm. A pack.” I wasn’t going to argue with him, not over something like this. I was pretty sure there was going to be a lot to argue about in the future. Sure, things were good now, but we were both too pig-headedly stubborn to back down, even from each other.
“What now?” Liam moved so that he was behind me, his lips against my ear. “What’s the next step?”
Gods, if only I knew the answer to that, I’d be a Reader like Jack or Giselle.
Milly was pregnant, had stolen the violet book—a book Jack hadn’t wanted even me to read.
Faris was as twisted and untrustworthy as any vampire I’d ever known, and he was back on the shit list where he belonged. Where I should have left him from the first moment I’d met him.
Berget … that was where things got confusing. She was still my sister, but I realized now that she was gone outside of my grasp for good. The Child Empress had tried to kill Pamela, had set that fucking Dr. Daniels and her Beast on me, whether or not she meant to. How did I reconcile that with the child I had known? I didn’t. Couldn’t.
There was no way for me to save her. Once and for all, my sister was gone.
“There’s nothing left for us here,” I said softly, knowing in every fiber of my being that it was true.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
I smiled up at him and kissed him, my heart heavy with sorrow for all that had been lost, and yet light for all that had been found. “Yes, it’s time to go home.”
Back Matter
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