by Scott, J. S.
Zach’s smile was calm and polite, a welcome change from Hunter’s brittle, mocking smirk. Talia shook his hand briefly, and Zach moved back to sit in a recliner next to Hunter.
Talia gaped at the two brothers and then turned back to Drew. “Winston? Like in the billionaire Winston brothers?” She might be isolated, but she’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard of the Winston brothers. They were assumed to be excessively reclusive, and were never photographed. Now she knew why. Obviously they didn’t get around like normal people, and if they didn’t want photos of themselves out there, that problem could be easily resolved.
“Yes.” Drew acknowledged the brothers’ identity. “What the hell are you doing here?” Drew asked both his brothers impatiently.
Zach answered patiently, “We had plans, Drew. We all agreed to meet here at seven o’clock so we could try out that new Mexican restaurant. You know…food…your favorite thing in the world.” He shot Drew a questioning look before adding, “Until today, I guess.”
“I forgot,” Drew answered in an agitated voice.
“I get it. I just left Kristoff’s—he filled me in,” Zach informed Drew.
“Talia’s being pursued by powerful Evils, probably ancients,” Drew told his brothers, running a hand through his hair, frustrated.
“I’ll fucking kill them all,” Hunter growled. “She was my rescue.”
Zach sent a swift warning glance at Hunter before continuing, “For some reason, they’re after her. She’s special, just like Kat.” Zach’s features softened as he mentioned his mate’s name. “They aren’t going to stop looking just because you relocated.”
Drew groaned. “I know. I need to find a place where she’s going to be safe.”
“Being with you is the safest place she can be right now,” Zach answered sympathetically. “If Talia can really sense the Evils like Kristoff said she can, you can move locations if they find you here. She’s special. That’s why they want her. And I doubt they’ll give up easily.”
Talia glanced from one brother to the other before asking, “Special how? I don’t understand.” How was she any different from any other radiant?
Zach quickly explained how his mate, Kat, was a realm-walker, and he went through the series of events that had occurred after he and Kat had met. Talia listened with fascination, stunned. “So her powers were released when you bound yourself together? Do I have the same dormant power?”
“No.” Drew answered this time. “Your power is probably just as strong, but different. Kristoff, our king, says they’re not the same as Kat’s, but we won’t know exactly what they are until the power is released.”
“I’m already psychic. I see paranormal beings when other people don’t. Is that all part of this dormant power?” She’d always been different. Maybe now she actually knew why.
“Honestly, I don’t know. But Kat isn’t psychic and never was,” Drew responded, his arm tightening around Talia’s waist in silent support. “And you aren’t different. You’re special.”
Talia grimaced, but she secretly adored Drew’s emphatic declaration.
“Can we discuss this while we’re eating? I’m hungry, Irish,” Hunter grumbled.
“I have to agree,” Zach agreed sheepishly. “Kat has a class tonight and I don’t want to eat my own cooking.” He briefly explained to Talia that his wife was going back to school to get her degree, leaving him on his own for the evening.
Drew looked at Talia. “Are you hungry?”
Almost as if on cue, Talia’s stomach rumbled. She’d been under compulsion earlier in the day and hadn’t eaten. “Actually…yeah.”
“We’ll go,” Drew informed his brothers as he stood, pulling Talia up beside him. Pumpkin slid off Talia’s lap and landed on the couch, giving Drew an indignant look. “But I’ll drive. Talia already had to recover from rapid transport once today.”
Hunter and Zach stood up, neither one of them looking happy that they’d have to wait at the restaurant for Drew.
“Go ahead. I can grab something here,” Talia told Drew, not wanting anyone to have to wait for her.
“Over my dead body,” Drew rasped. “You stay with me. They can wait, right?” He shot his two brothers an answer-yes-or-I’ll-kill-you look.
Zach nodded, any sign of impatience gone. “Of course. It isn’t that far away.”
“I’m ordering,” Hunter warned Drew. “And I’m eating all the chips while I’m waiting.”
Talia laughed, amused by Hunter’s refusal to be polite. He’d never exactly been warm and fuzzy, and that hadn’t changed a bit. The difference was…now she could see the spark of pain in his eyes, something she’d never noticed before. “We’ll order more,” she shot back at him.
“I’ll eat those too,” Hunter replied wickedly, disappearing in front of her eyes before she could blink.
“Bastard,” Drew commented testily.
“I’ll save you some,” Zach comforted Drew, grinning at Talia. “Ordinarily, nothing gets between Drew and his food.” Zach winked at Talia and disappeared.
“I’m sorry,” Talia told Drew remorsefully. “We could try to transport. Can’t you go slower?”
She shivered as he lowered his head, his lips grazing the side of her neck, pulling her back against him as his mouth wandered to her ear. He was so damn…tall. Talia had felt like a giant beside almost all women and some men most of her life, but Drew towered behind her…big, solid, and so very warm. She relaxed into his embrace, tipping her head to give him access as he nuzzled her ear, his warm breath caressing the sensitive flesh.
“Mo stór…with you…I doubt the word ‘slow’ is even part of my vocabulary,” he answered gruffly, sounding pained.
Although Talia couldn’t translate Irish Gaelic, she did understand the Irish endearment that was akin to him calling her his darling, and she let the low, sexy voice wash over her heart like a balm. She bent and scooped up a handful of candy from a dish on the coffee table. “Maybe these will tide you over until we get to the restaurant,” she suggested, holding the handful of chocolate out to him.
He turned her around and looked down at her, his grin mischievous and playful. He grabbed the dish and emptied the whole thing into his pocket. “Keep those for yourself. I’m restocked.”
Giving Drew an exasperated look, she dropped the candy back into the dish. “We’re already going to eat Mexican food. I won’t get thin eating like that.” Her hips were already a little too curvy, and she could stand to lose a few pounds. Her research and writing made for a pretty sedentary lifestyle.
Drew’s expression grew suddenly stormy. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever get thin,” he answered desperately, his eyes turning wild. He pulled a gold foil-wrapped treat from his pocket and tore off the wrapper. “Open,” he demanded, holding the decadent chocolate to her mouth.
He looked so anxious that Talia obeyed, eying his wild-eyed panic mixed with concern. The burst of sweetness that exploded inside her mouth was so divine that she had to swallow back a moan. “That’s good.” The man definitely knew his chocolate. It was one of the most decadent things she’d ever tasted.
She watched as he frantically opened another and held it up to her. She opened her mouth and accepted it, but shook her head as he held up yet another. Swallowing hard, she told him, “That’s enough.”
“Thin isn’t good, Talia. It’s bad. Eat,” he demanded, his expression stubborn.
“Drew, I don’t think I’m in any danger of getting too skinny.” She searched his face, trying to figure out what was motivating his behavior. Obviously, it was some sort of protectiveness, something Drew seemed to have in abundance. “I have plenty of extra meat on my bones.” More than enough.
“Never enough,” Drew answered harshly. “I’ll always have plenty of food. You’ll never go hungry.”
“You went hungry at one time, didn�
��t you?” Her mind calculating quickly, thinking about his year of birth, she asked gently, “Were you in Ireland during the potato famine?”
He held the treat patiently at her mouth, waiting for her to take it, and finally, she did. Not that she wanted or needed it, but she couldn’t bear the look on his face. His expression was haunted as he watched her chew and swallow before he finally answered. “Yes. My parents died when I was young and I tried to take over their small plot of land to farm. We were poor. Always poor. But after my parents died, I was at least able to survive on some of the potatoes. When the potatoes went bad, there was no food. I ate whatever I could find, even the bark from trees, to try to survive. I was nearly dead when Kristoff found me.”
Talia closed her eyes in horror, unable to keep herself from picturing an emaciated Drew, near death from starvation. The Great Famine during the mid-nineteenth century had killed more than a million people in Ireland due to a potato blight. Knowing Drew had suffered through most of it was almost unbearable. It had been a hellish, dreadful time in Irish history, and for a poor farmer like Drew, she could only imagine the suffering he’d witnessed and experienced. “Kristoff saved you,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around Drew’s waist and laying her head on his shoulder.
“It was a near miss,” Drew admitted huskily. “I was delirious, sick with one of the diseases running rampant through Ireland. I thought he was a delusion at first.” He released a masculine sigh. “But yeah…he saved my life. I never could figure out why. I was dying. I wasn’t straddling the line between good and evil. I had already stolen, begged, and done evil things just to try to stay alive. I’d given up.”
“Because you were worth saving,” Talia answered emphatically, her heart still breaking at the thought of Drew being so hungry for so many years. No wonder he ate all the time. Had she gone through the kind of deprivation that she knew had happened during the Great Famine, she’d be doing the same.
“So sure of that, are you?” Drew questioned softly, his tone slightly amused, his Irish brogue more prominent.
“Yes,” she answered honestly, pulling back to look up at him, amazed that she actually had to tilt her head back to see any man, given her height. “It must have taken incredible strength to have lived as long as you did. When did he rescue you?”
“Eighteen forty-eight. I hadn’t even hit my thirtieth birthday yet, and I was already dead,” Drew replied, his massive body shuddering slightly, obviously still reliving the memories of his past.
“How long had you been starving?” Talia couldn’t keep herself from asking, even though she didn’t want to think about it. Drew obviously needed to put some of those memories to rest. “And you weren’t really dead.”
“Very nearly. I was hungry for years, but by the time Kristoff arrived, you could see every bone in my body. I didn’t have anything left, and I knew whatever disease had taken hold of me was going to kill me.”
He’d been a skeleton ready to die. Talia felt a tear trickle down her cheek. Although she studied ancient history, she was familiar with the horrors of the Great Famine. “Were you afraid?”
Talia could feel Drew shaking his head. “No. By then I just wanted to die,” he admitted. “I prayed for death. I know what it’s like to not care if you live or die, to know that your presence on earth won’t be missed by one single person.”
More tears poured down her face and Drew gently wiped them away as they fell. “What would have happened to you if Kristoff hadn’t found you in time?” she said, her voice choked with emotion.
“Don’t agitate yourself, mo stór. It was long ago. I survived.”
Talia lifted her hand to his whiskered jaw. “I suddenly want to feed you. Desperately. Can you transport us slowly to the restaurant?”
Drew frowned at her. “I can, but I won’t. I won’t risk it. Besides, I’m not all that certain that my hunger is for food anymore. I’m more concerned about getting you food.” He took her hand as he wiped away the last tear on her face. “I’m beginning to think it never really was food that I actually wanted,” he finished huskily, his eyes liquid and dark.
Talia knew Drew ate just because he could, and because he’d never gotten over his period of starvation. Perhaps he really didn’t need food at the moment, but after hearing his story, she wanted to see him eat. Her stomach growled, and she thought it was probably more in empathy for Drew than her own need. Her connection to him grew stronger every moment that she was near him. “Well, then feed me,” she told him with a chuckle.
“We’ll go now,” Drew replied tensely. “I know you’re hungry.”
Hungry for you.
The turbulent look in his eyes told Talia he heard her thoughts. “And stop reading my mind,” she scolded, slapping him on the arm. “Feed me.”
He grinned wickedly. “I’m a demon, mo mhuirnín. Some things are not controllable.” He took her hand in hers. “Ready?”
“Yes.” Talia knew she was getting way too accustomed to Drew calling her his treasure, his darling, or his dear in Gaelic, and it was much too sexy said in his flowing baritone, rolling off his tongue so naturally. But it made her feel…cherished. Much like Drew could read her thoughts, she could sense his emotions, and the words were natural for him, an expression in his native tongue of his feelings for her.
He nodded once and took them to the restaurant, even driving more cautiously because she was in the vehicle. Maybe she shouldn’t become accustomed to it, but for the first time in her life, a man actually held her as something dear to him, and it felt so damn good.
“What’s the mating ceremony like?” Talia asked the voluptuous, redheaded woman sitting across the kitchen table from her. Zach and Kat had come for a visit to Drew’s home, and the two males were currently taking care of Sentinel business, leaving the women together at Drew’s.
Talia could feel what seemed like a battalion of guardian Sentinels around them, no doubt put in place by Drew. When he’d promised to protect her, he hadn’t been saying it lightly. When he was here, he rarely let her out of his sight. And when he was gone, she was surrounded by protection. It didn’t matter that he could flash back to her in an instant whenever she called him. Despite this, it still took him a good five minutes to give her instructions about what to do should anything happen, and he made her promise that the first thing she would do was to call out to him.
He still claimed to hate cats, but Talia had caught him talking to Pumpkin before he left, stroking her fur and telling her to watch out for her owner. Like Pumpkin was a kitty version of a Doberman? Still, it had been such a touching scene between the self-professed feline-hater and her kitty that Talia had wanted to cry.
Talia had liked Kat immediately, sensing a kindred spirit almost from the moment they had met a few hours ago. Normally shy and quiet due to her isolation, Talia surprisingly found that she could talk easily and freely with Zach’s wife. Kat had filled Talia in on the demon world from a radiant’s perspective, which turned out to be quite different from the history she’d been gaining from Drew over the last week. Not that everything Drew had told her wasn’t true, but it was different from a radiant point of view.
Kat took a sip of her coffee and flushed slightly. “I’m not sure I can explain it. Not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t think of anything comparable.” After frowning in concentration for a moment, she added, “You know how you feel compelled to join with Drew, and that urgency just keeps getting worse?” Kat asked with a questioning look.
Oh, yeah. Talia knew. She’d been suffering through the effects of the mating instinct for the last week, finding it harder to resist with each passing day. But resist she did. She wanted to really know Drew, not be compelled by an ancient rule some god or goddess had decreed. Incredibly, Drew seemed to understand what she wanted, even though she knew it hadn’t been easy for him. “Yes,” she answered Kat’s query softly.
“We
ll…it’s sort of a culmination of all of the desire, need, and the emotions that go with it rolled into one…um…encounter, whipped around, and finally settling into place.” Placing her mug back on the table, she shot Talia a mischievous glance. “It’s like the most incredible orgasm imaginable, combined with intense relief. Once a Sentinel and a radiant merge, she gains a tiny piece of his soul, and he gets a sliver of hers, enough to flood his soul with light. It’s like you’re finally whole again after missing a part of yourself for a very long time.” She smiled. “Admittedly, it was much longer for Zach than it was for me, but I don’t think you really notice how much you were missing that part of yourself until you meet your mate.” Kat reached up and slid down the neck of her long-sleeved shirt. “We both carry the mating mark.”
Talia squinted at it before rising and walking around the table, examining the mark Kat was exposing. “May I look, touch it?”
“Be my guest,” Kat agreed amiably, yanking the V-neck shirt lower.
Talia stroked one finger over the mark. It was hot, radiating a warmth that was supernatural. But she was more interested in the tiny markings. “Twin souls?” she wondered aloud. The depictions were identical, resembling two minuscule illuminated specks that united as one to make a perfect flame.
“What does it mean?” Kat asked curiously.
“Plato once wrote about twin souls in Greek mythology,” Talia muttered thoughtfully. “He explained that humans were once both male and female, and that they had four legs, four arms, and two heads. When humans became too arrogant, Zeus split them in half so one part would yearn for the other eternally because their soul was separated and torn in half.”
“Do you think it’s true?” Kat asked as she pulled her shirt back up to her shoulder.
Talia took her seat again. “I study ancient history with scientific facts. I never believed in mythology at all until I met the demons. Now I’m forced to consider that everything I thought was truth really isn’t. There’s no proof that mythological creatures existed, but most people don’t see ghosts and otherworldly visions,” she grumbled unhappily. “But I suppose the radiants and Sentinels could have the same basic concept of twin souls, although I have no idea if the myth is actually true. The obvious conclusion I’ve made is that the ancient history I study is real…true scientific data, but only in one dimension.”
