by Heather Long
Jerking back a step, Bish stared at him as if he were truly trying to figure out the thought process behind the question. Seth was sure he believed they were using her for fun until she passed, or as some sort of toy in their sibling rivalry. That couldn't be further from the truth.
“You are the one that extended her life. Can you not feel her lifeforce?” The calculation in Bish’s gaze threatened to raise his ire, but he answered the question.
“No,” he forced through his teeth. Should he have had a link to let him know when she would slip away? Now he felt cheated out of something he hadn’t realized would be so important to him.
Bish blew out a harsh breath, swiping his hand over cropped midnight hair. “So for whatever reason, you’re unable to see how long she has left, and you thought I could answer your question.” He nodded as if that would be the only reason Seth sought him out. “Her light is quickly dimming. A week at most is all she has.”
Dahlia’s soul was as bright and shining as it had ever been. Bish’s grace must provide him a deeper look inside her, and he hated how he envied him for the first time in all his long life.
“Is there any way to extend her life?” It was a long shot, but while Seth had him here, he would ring as much information as Bish was willing to share. He placed all his hope on the other Keeper being familiar with what he’d done. If anyone would have been exposed to that information, it would be Bish, right?
An entirely different light entered Bish’s eyes as he studied Seth. “You truly care for her, don’t you?”
The question startled Seth. Was it not obvious? Even though they’d kept her mostly to themselves, how could anyone not see it when they took her to Sinner’s? Dahlia was their center. They gravitated toward her with an affection they’d never before experienced and a possessive instinct that was so strong, it bordered on unnatural.
“She is ours. For as long as she walks this Earth, she is ours,” was the only answer Seth was willing to give. “Now answer my question. Is there a way to extend her life?”
Seth was tempted to share her episodes with Bish to gauge his reaction, determine if he knew more than he was willing to share, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It was a weakness Seth didn’t want others to know.
After a few minutes of chewing on his lip, Bish finally answered. “No.”
Turning away, cradling the back of his head, Seth refused to let him witness the sudden wash of hopelessness. He hadn’t actually expected Bish to have the answers, or to provide him with a way to keep her with them just a little longer. Still, the pain that stabbed through his heart was as sharp as if he had already lost Dahlia. Taking several deep breaths to regulate his breathing, he got his emotions under control before he pivoted back around.
“Would you tell me if you did know of a way to extend her time here?” Seth had to know if he could trust anything that came out of this Keeper’s mouth. He wasn’t known for telling falsehoods, but he’d already proved himself invested in Dahlia’s death.
Bish rubbed his forefinger along one eyebrow, clearly deciding how he wanted to answer this particular question. “Also no.”
Then in a flash of midnight with streaks of gold, he was gone.
“Argh!” Seth screamed into the sky. That was an absolute waste of time, no matter how he looked at it. He could have done without knowing Dahlia had so little time left. Then knowing Bish wouldn’t tell him how to save her, even if he knew, infuriated him. The fire of anger licked up his spine, his beast flexing inside him.
That Keeper was not to be trusted. It was clear he still had every intention of stealing Dahlia when the time came, taking her to a place neither he nor his brothers could follow. The one good thing he gained from that was the knowledge that Bish was not to be around Dahlia under any circumstances.
Heading back to the bedroom with far heavier steps than when he had his bright idea, he attempted to clear the dejection from his mind. The last thing he wanted was to lay next to Dahlia when his emotions were so tangled. He didn’t want to take the chance that it would leak onto her.
It was silly. She was human and wasn’t empathic in the slightest sense.
“Everything all right?” Tarus lifted his head. The balcony was quite a ways from the bedroom. There was still a chance that Zhan and Tarus heard everything that passed between him and Bish, and they most certainly heard his yell of frustration.
“As good as it can be, considering.” Seth motioned for his brothers to move aside for a moment, as he cradled Dahlia to his chest so he could lay underneath her. Once he had her comfortably sprawled on top of him, he nodded at his brothers.
They immediately closed in on either side, wrapping an arm over Dahlia’s back.
Neither Zhan nor Tarus commented on his conversation with Bish, so either they were too absorbed in Dahlia to listen, or they wanted to forget that her time wasn’t quite as long as they had hoped.
Hours they waited for her to wake up, but she slept on as if she wasn’t the victim of Seth’s grace. The marker for the length of her last episode came and went, and still she slept, bringing worry once more to the forefront of his mind.
“Dahlia believes we will continue to use our grace to save others once she’s gone,” Zhan whispered as he propped his head in his hand.
Tarus snorted, but even that noise was soft so as not to disturb her. “She apparently doesn’t realize the pathetic creatures we’ll be without her.”
Zhan and Seth’s silence was their agreement.
“My sweet,” Seth pressed the back of his hand to her check.
No answer.
“We should probably let her sleep. The last time it seemed as if she was recharging, like her energy levels were too low to sustain her.” Zhan scooted closer to press into her side.
“This isn’t good enough for me.” Tarus flopped onto his back, staring blankly at the ceiling. Zhan popped right up and glared at his brother.
“What do you mean this isn’t good enough? This is the first time we’ve been happy in thousands of years. Even before the fall,” Zhan growled as he bent over Dahlia’s back.
Seth just waited for Tarus’ answer as he rubbed his hand up and down her back.
“That’s not what I mean at all. The time Dahlia has left isn’t good enough. Someone, somewhere has to know something. I refuse to believe Beauty is the first to receive a touch of grace to extend her life.”
Seth closed his eyes. This was his exact thought when he called on Bish, and that hadn’t helped one bit. “What would you have us do, Tarus?”
“Something more than this…” his brother snapped as he gestured to the room. “This deathwatch.”
“I spoke to Kindle,” Seth told him, reaching for patience. Punishment could be fierce when aroused, and the earlier judgment and punishment had been his first in who knew how many years. It wasn’t unreasonable that his grace pounded at him. Judgment had as well, it was why he’d snatched her last breath, given it back—given her time.
“She said she couldn’t help,” Zhan murmured. “We were there.”
“She also said,” Seth continued with a heavy sigh. “That we couldn’t change fate.”
Zhan grimaced. “I’m beginning to loathe the concept of fate. Who gets to decide whose fate is what? Us? Karmen? Fucking Bish?”
With a little shrug, Seth shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The silence punctuated with all the things they didn’t say hung around them like a turbulent storm just waiting to burst.
Another hour came and went, and still, Dahlia didn’t wake. The night would give way to day soon. Seth didn’t dare sleep. He didn’t want to miss a single moment.
“Dahlia brought up fate the other day,” Zhan said, his tone musing.
“What about it?”
Looping a lock of her dark hair around his finger, Zhan stroked it gently with his thumb. “Just that maybe when I delivered justice, the reason I couldn’t save everyone is that their fate had to be met. Sure, I c
ould delay it, and that was a good thing. I could serve justice to right some wrongs. But if their fate said it was time, it was. That wasn’t on me.”
“Bullshit.” Tarus exploded upward from the bed, his wings flexing in agitation as he began to pace. “It’s Dahlia’s fate to die?” He whirled on them. “No, it wasn’t. If it had been her damn fate, we wouldn’t have had the chance to intervene.”
Turning that argument over in his head, Seth couldn’t find fault with it.
“Fate didn’t decide she would die.” For the first time in too many centuries, Tarus dropped his human guise altogether. The black stripe tattooed from his hairline above his left eye stretched down his face over the corner of his mouth to dip below his chin. The mark had often terrified those humans when he delivered Punishment, but he’d never explained the tattoo, and Seth had long since stopped asking. “We decided it for her.”
“Brother,” Seth attempted, but Tarus shook his head as he sliced a hand through the air.
“No, you were right. We abandoned her. Zhan could have freed her from that darkness, and I could have ended that son of a—” Tarus stopped abruptly. “I can still end him.” The tension in his jaw seemed to redouble as he grinned, though it was more grimace and angry than possessing any joy. “His crime still needs to be punished…”
With a sigh, Seth said, “No.”
“What?” Zhan shoved upward this time and stared down at him. “He killed her. He committed the crime. You were the witness. You cannot tell me he does not deserve to have punishment rendered.”
“Exactly.” Tarus took a step toward them, his aura pulsing with barely restrained fury. “Maybe I can’t save her, but I can deliver punishment on the one who did this.”
“You can’t,” Seth tried to explain, but Zhan leapt off the bed.
“We failed her once,” he argued. “I would take all the shadows from her now and bear them myself if I could. But when she died… When you caught her last breath, those shadows purged. I can’t even trace them back to those who did her harm.”
Which meant they couldn’t find Alex. Not that they’d have much luck.
“Then you have to tell us, Brother,” Punishment demanded. Tarus all but faded behind his anger and the rage of his grace after too long being denied…and after denying himself Dahlia. Seth hadn’t asked about the last either, though he probably should. Tarus was not known for denying himself. His lust for life rivaled Zhan’s in many ways.
“There is no point in telling you,” Seth said, keeping his tone even. Though in deference to the fact that both of his brothers now loomed over him and Dahlia, Seth sat up and kept her cradled to his chest with her head tucked on his shoulder. The soft whisper of her breath tickled his throat, and he pressed a kiss to her temple. The action came as naturally to him now as it had once seemed foreign. He wanted to treasure these moments with her, not fight with his brothers.
“Dammit, Seth,” Punishment growled. “Tell me.”
“I can’t tell you, because he’s dead.” The flat announcement shocked Punishment back a step. Zhan gaped at him, his stunned countenance almost laughable if it weren’t so serious. Two sets of wings drooped as did their shoulders.
“Dead?” Tarus whispered.
“Dead,” Seth confirmed, stroking Dahlia’s bare shoulder. She was still wearing the too little dress she’d been dancing in all night. It was far more appropriate for the bedroom than the dance floor, even if she’d ignored all of his arguments to the contrary. Admittedly, she had looked amazing as she danced with Zhan, her body poetry in motion.
“How?” Zhan sputtered.
Leveling them both with a look, Seth kept it simple. “After I captured her breath and shared my grace, I brought her here where she could sleep—”
He paused abruptly.
Where she could sleep.
It had taken nearly a full day for her to wake again. The adjustment as her body healed. Shifting his grip, he rolled her onto her back and set her on the bed. When he would have torn off the dress, both of his brothers leapt in to grab him.
“What are you doing?” Tarus demanded.
“She’ll kill you,” Zhan added. “She loves this dress.”
Not rolling his eyes took every ounce of Seth’s control.
“If you want it off,” Zhan continued adjusting her with absolute tenderness, before unzipping the dress in the back. The cloth fell away easily, and Tarus swept it down her long legs.
She had on absolutely nothing under the dress, and all three of them groaned.
They’d known, of course they’d known, Zhan had fucked her before they left. Seth’s cock stiffened at the memory. Sharing her with his brothers should have been anathema, and had been. But now there were no other beings in existence he would rather have in her life. They cherished her as he did. Zhan’s lust and joy in her was a thing to behold. Dahlia held nothing back.
Riveted on her, Tarus still held her dress in one hand. “Beyond that she is beautiful to look at, why did we want to take her dress off?”
Reality snapped Seth out of his fantasies, and he shook his head once before leaning close to examine her. “The night I shared my grace with her, she dropped off immediately. Collapsed.” As she had the other night and again tonight. “She slept for a full day. A day to heal everything, to restore her to perfect health.” The grace wouldn’t have had to do much, she was already perfect.
With care, Seth examined her hands. The soft ovals of her nails that she had recently filed and painted a stunning shade of blue. She insisted it matched his eyes, but Seth didn’t see it. Still, they were as lovely as she was. All along her forearms to her throat. Tipping her face to the side, he examined the slender column of her neck.
The small sucking bruises Tarus left there that morning over breakfast were gone. He traced his fingers over her collarbone to her breasts. Cupping one, he glanced at the underside where his own marks had been.
Gone.
Zhan nudged her thighs apart. The marks along there, biting kisses he and Seth had both made were also gone. Tarus grunted as Seth glanced at them.
“Was she hurt at some point tonight?”
Seth searched his memory, but could find no incident. It had been a glorious day. They’d laughed and played, but he’d refused to play catch with her because he didn’t want to frighten her or risk a fall. Now…
“No,” Zhan insisted. “I had my hands all over her today.”
Tarus snorted, but Zhan ignored him.
“She had no injuries or wounds.”
Straightening, Seth folded his arms. Bish seemed to think he should have some sense of how long she had left. He surmised a week.
Seven days.
Seven nights.
A fleeting moment in comparison to the length of their lives and to the relentless, empty eternity waiting on the other side.
It was no time at all.
It was everything.
His wings flexed as he considered his options. Bish wouldn’t answer him. Kindle said she couldn’t help.
“You killed him,” Tarus said, interrupting his musings.
“Who?” Seth asked, turning over the options in his head. Karmen couldn’t be trusted, but she’d said something at the bar. Something about rooting for Dahlia from the beginning. She’d also been present in Sinner’s the first night Seth had seen Dahlia.
“The asshole who killed her?” The disgust in Tarus’ voice made Seth sigh. Zhan flicked a look to both of them before he eased Dahlia up and began to tuck her under the sheets. Her skin had begun to prickle with goosebumps because none of them were holding her. Without waiting for them, Zhan stripped down then slid in next to her.
Instead of joining them, Seth debated his next move. “Yes,” he said absently. “I did. An hour after he killed her, I rendered judgment and delivered the punishment.”
Wide-eyed, Zhan stared at him. “Punishment isn’t your grace.”
Seth shrugged. It wasn’t worth the argument right now. “It ne
eded to be done.”
A grunt was Tarus’ only response.
“Are you two just going to stand there scowling or come hold her?” Zhan asked.
“I’m going out,” Seth told them both abruptly and earned a pair of gaping stares. It was a risk. He could lose time with her. But Karmen knew something, and if he ended up owing her, then so be it.
Dahlia was worth any price the Keeper could demand.
“You can’t just go,” Tarus said abruptly. “What if she wakes up?”
“Then you two will take care of her.” He gripped Tarus’ shoulder. “I trust you, brother.”
Surprise flared in his eyes.
“You both need time with her, too. If I can find an answer, I’m going to. I don’t want to lose her.”
There. He’d said it.
Zhan exhaled a tortured breath. As one, Seth and Tarus looked to him. The naked pain on his face hid nothing from them. Zhan had lost before. He’d lost a human he’d been deeply fond of, but not how they were with Dahlia. That Seth knew for certain.
“Watch him,” Seth warned softly. Tarus needed a task, and Zhan was more sensitive than either of them, though he might be able to argue against that now. “Keep them safe.”
“I will,” Tarus swore, and it rang through Seth as the oath that it was. Seth was nearly to the door when Tarus spoke again. “Seth…”
Turning, he glanced back at them. Tarus stood next to the bed, his shirt half off, and Zhan cradled Dahlia to him. They all looked so vulnerable to him. All of them.
He’d let his brothers down in the past. He couldn’t stand to do it again.
“Find something to save her, if you can,” Tarus whispered in a harsh voice. “But don’t spend too much time.”
The unspoken warning hung there. It had taken him three days to find Kindness before. He couldn’t afford to take that long.
“I won’t. I will be back before the sun sets.”
It wasn’t long, but he was very motivated.
Stalking from the room, he gathered his human guise to himself. The layer so thin and almost ill-fitting in some ways. A passing glance to the mirror had him halting.
