Damn, she sounded like someone desperately trying to say something nice. “It’s a puzzle box.”
She stiffened beside him. Her wings fluttered rapidly. “Puzzle box?” She eyed him warily. “Made by you?”
He nodded. “It’s pretty intricate. If you like, I can show you how to open it.”
She scrambled away from him, puzzle box clenched in her fist. “Mine!”
“Okay.” He lay back and put his arms behind his head. “But you need any help, Miz Akane, you come fetch me, y’hear?”
She growled low in her throat. “I think I can figure out a simple puzzle box.”
Shane shrugged. “If you say so.”
“Shove it, Jethro.”
“Name the place, a ghrá.” He patted his stomach, just above his erection. “I’ll shove it wherever you like.”
“Pig.”
His brows rose. “That’s Lord Pig, thank you.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Did you know your brother said almost the exact the same thing to Ruby once?”
“How did you…? No, never mind. Don’t tell me.” Her laughter was music to his ears. “Great minds and all that.” He sat up, letting her get a good look at his morning wood. “Wanna go for a ride, little girl?” He waggled his brows, delighted when she laughed.
“Well—” Her cell phone rang, ending any hopes that he’d be getting his preferred breakfast. “Hello?”
Shane lay back on the bed with a sigh. “Tell Robin I said hi.”
“Shane says hi.”
He grinned ruefully. It looked like his dragon had to go back to work. He watched, fascinated, as her wings disappeared in a golden shower of sparks. Her skin turned creamy, her horns disappearing below her hair. When she turned around, her human Seeming rested on her skin, dazzling but mundane now that he’d seen what she really looked like.
He blew her a kiss and wrapped himself in his own Seeming, loving the moue of disappointment on her face. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who liked the truth better than the fiction.
She hung up the phone and he realized he hadn’t caught a word she’d said. “When do you go?”
“I have to meet with Etienne, Jaden and Robin in an hour.” She shrugged. “Robin promised pastries if I made it in forty-five minutes.”
“Damn.” He stood and stretched, aware of her eyes drinking him in. He scratched his belly. “I’d ask for a good-bye kiss, but that might lead to you getting in trouble with your boss.”
She shook her head. “I’d risk it.”
Shane closed the distance between them and cupped her face. “Have a good day at work, a ghrá.” He poured all of his love into the kiss, hoping she felt even a fraction of what he did. He could work with fractions.
He’d always been good at math.
When he lifted his mouth from hers her eyes were dazed, her lips swollen. Her nipples poked his chest, begging for his touch. Instead, he stroked her cheek before pulling away. He couldn’t interfere in her work. She’d never allow him to. They’d both wind up miserable, and the distraction could cause her death.
Besides, it was hot as hell knowing his mate could kick serious ass.
“Shower here. It’ll be faster. I’ll go back to the main house and grab you some clothes.”
“And makeup.”
He nodded, dragging on his jeans.
“And my shampoo and conditioner, because I’m not using anything in a man’s shower.”
His brows rose, but he pulled on his sweater anyway.
“And my soap.”
“Anything else, Princess?”
“My brown boots with the gold buckles, my skinny jeans, underwear because I’m not going commando and my gold Michael Kors sweater. Oh, and my black overcoat, the one with all the pockets.” She turned to the bathroom but turned back again almost immediately. “And I need the black box under my bed, and the—eep!”
He’d flung her naked over his shoulder. There was no way in hell he’d remember that list. A gold Michael Kors sweater? She had to be kidding him. “Might as well cart you back to the house rather than cart all that stuff here.”
“I’m naked, Shane.”
He opened the door to the outside, her shriek of outrage as the cold blasted her naked flesh making him laugh. “So I noticed.”
She transformed in his arms to her full dragon form. Claws shredded the jeans covering his ass before she took off, pulling free as he instinctively covered his nakedness. “Asshole.”
“I love you too!” He blew her a kiss before entering the studio once more. He hoped he had another pair of jeans, or his butt would be a frozen block before he got to the house.
Shane eyed the flying form of his mate as she landed on the roof of the house with a triumphant yell. Maybe he should have asked for a ride.
Jaden was too busy laughing his ass off to hear her low growls of warning. Robin merely looked amused, Etienne disturbed at the vampire’s antics. “Goldschschläger,” Jaden gasped. “Oh god, that’s rich.” Jaden wiped tears of mirth from his eyes before straightening up in his chair. His black eyes twinkled, an echo of Robin’s eerie green flashing through them announcing their shared blood. “So. Were you well and truly fucked?”
Robin chuckled. Etienne looked pained.
Akane kept her expression deadpan. Toying with Jaden was fun, but only if he didn’t catch on. “Shane did an adequate job.”
Jaden’s gaze roamed over her, but whatever he was looking for he didn’t seem to find. “Remind me to have a little chat with him.”
“Remind me to kill Tristan when I see him again.” No one poisoned her with gold and got away with it.
“Any idea why he wanted us gone?” Etienne was frowning, ignoring the antics of Jaden, who’d picked up one of Duncan’s pens and begun twirling it between his fingers. It appeared he’d taken a severe dislike to the vampire, much to Jaden’s amusement.
They’d decided to hold this meeting at Jaden’s home. Moira and Duncan had graciously agreed to stay out of the way, but Akane wouldn’t be surprised if Jaden wasn’t mentally keeping them in the loop. They’d agreed way too easily for it to be any other way.
“He probably believed the two of you would be an obstacle to completing his mission.” Robin sat, one leg crossed over the other, and swung his foot lazily. He perched on the edge of Duncan’s desk and watched them indulgently. He seemed highly amused by the fact that Etienne stayed as far as he could from Jaden. The Gray Court Sidhe had a reputation for avoiding the vampires of Oberon’s court. Being forced into the position of working with one, and worse, one who held a higher rank than he did, had to be sticking in his upper-crust craw.
“If he really is Glorianna’s agent it would be better to get him to work with us rather than against us.” Jaden held up his hand to forestall Etienne’s instant rejection of the idea. “Look, don’t make me sing the Barney theme song. Moira hates it when I do that.” He leaned back in his chair, balancing on two legs. “I know you don’t love me, and I sure as hell don’t love you, okay?” Jaden grinned at Robin. “We could always have Akane try again to seduce Tristan to the dark side.”
“Won’t work. He said any Sidhe could tell I’d been Claimed.”
Jaden’s chair hit the carpet. “Ow.” He pushed up on his elbows, his brows in his hairline. “You mentioned sexual spelunking had happened. You left out the part about the fireworks. Hell, I wasn’t sure Shane was capable of fireworks.”
She shrugged and kept her voice even. “He took advantage of my weakened state.” She blinked slowly. “As I said, he was adequate.”
Jaden’s lips twitched. “Welcome to the family.” He leered at her. “You realize mating Shane puts you in my clan, under my rule, right?”
Shit. No, she hadn’t thought of that. She wrinkled her nose and dropped the Vulcan act. “I want a divorce.”
Robin threw his head back and laughed.
Etienne waved impatiently. “This is irrelevant. We have more important things to worry about than whose c
lan Akane belongs to.”
Considering she’d avoided joining a clan like the plague, Akane felt it was very relevant. Thanks to who her mother was, Clan Blackthorn might now be perceived as having an advantage most other clans would kill to have: unlimited access to the Seer. But Etienne had a point. She could hash out the details with Jaden later.
Besides, if she absolutely had to belong to a clan, Clan Blackthorn was the one she’d pick anyway. “There has to be another way to get Tristan to work with us.”
Jaden got up off the floor and righted his chair. “Maybe we can have Duncan talk to him? As former head of Clan Malmayne, he might be able to persuade him.”
Akane bit her lip. “Unless he feels the same way toward Duncan and his bond with you that most of the White Court Sidhe feel.”
Jaden growled. “Stuck-up, prickless bastards.” His head tilted, his expression distant, His mates had to be speaking to him. A shy smile crossed his lips before he snapped back into the present. “He’s willing, but he’s not sure it will work.”
Would she share the same kind of mental link with Shane? Was it a Sidhe thing or a vampire thing? Dragons didn’t share that sort of mental bond, and Seers… Well, her mother said she’d always known her love would be brief, but the love the Seer held for her fallen mate couldn’t be denied. Akane’s father had been killed by a member of the Black Court a long time ago, leaving his mate and infant daughter to the tender mercies of the Courts. She stared into Jaden’s eyes, that quirky little something that made them such good partners kicking in. “We could just break into his room—”
Jaden began to pace. “Have Red go through his computer files—”
“Sack the place—”
“Maybe even leave a little present for Henri.” Jaden rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Daddy likey.”
“It’s too risky. If Henri or Tristan discover what you’ve done they could move on Ruby before we’re ready, or worse, come up with a completely different plan.”
“Tristan is Glorianna’s agent, I’m almost positive of it.”
Etienne glared at Akane. “I’m not.” He turned to Robin. “I would suggest further investigation into Tristan’s background. Perhaps there’s something there that we can use against him or, even better, Henri.”
Robin hopped off the table, light as a cat. “You do that.” He turned to Jaden. “Are you ready to get back to work, Jaden?”
Jaden cracked his knuckles with an evil laugh.
Robin smiled serenely. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He turned to Akane. “You’ll be working with Jaden on this from here on out.” He patted her cheek, then Jaden’s. “Make me proud, children.”
With that Robin was gone in a swirl of wind and blowing papers.
“Shit.” Jaden sighed, his hands on his hips. “Duncan’s going to be pissed.”
“Over being assigned this job?” Akane reached down and picked up one of the papers Robin had accidentally blown to the floor.
“Nope. He’ll have to go through all that paperwork again.” Jaden scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Oh wait. That was my paperwork. Guess my mate will have to lend me a hand since I have to work for the foreseeable future.”
“Why does Robin place such trust in a vampire?” Etienne was glaring at them both.
Akane almost laughed in his face. “You weren’t there when Clan Blackthorn was formed, were you?”
Etienne shook his head.
Jaden merely smiled, but that echo of Robin’s green light flashed once more through his eyes, there and gone again.
“Jaden shares blood with Robin, confirmed by both Robin and Oberon himself. Robin claims him as blood of his blood.” Where was this animosity was coming from? Etienne was Gray Court; he should have gotten used to the vampires in the Court by now. “That means Robin Goodfellow considers Jaden family.”
Etienne paled. “Ah.” He stood and bowed. “I will get to work gathering the background information we need.”
“Something that should have been done before you two even started. Seriously, Akane, where was your head? Up Shane’s ass?”
She growled at Jaden. “Shut up. My primary objective was to protect Shane. My secondary objective was to fuck with Tristan Malmayne.”
“You might want to discuss that last one with Shane. He might have an objection.”
She let the star in the center of her eye grow, looking for Shane. His incandescent power danced across her senses, warming her. “Two completely different kinds of fucking.” She grinned. “Trust me. I know the difference.”
“Freaky dragon bitch.”
Akane tilted her head. “Remind me some day to tell you how you got Robin’s blood in you.”
Jaden shuddered. “Please don’t.”
They barely acknowledged Etienne leaving the room. “You know?”
“I have…nightmares. Duncan tried to help me see what had happened, but when we were done he was… Gods, he was destroyed, and I still didn’t know for certain what Robin did to me.”
“Meaning Duncan turned around and re-blocked the memory.” It was Akane’s turn to shudder. “Jade, remember when you kidnapped Shane?”
“How could I forget? I still taste Kaitlynn occasionally when I burp. Blech.”
Akane resisted rolling her eyes, barely. “Robin knew you’d taken Shane and, to get you to tell him where Shane was, he hurt you. When he realized you were trying to keep things together until Duncan got home he fixed you the only way he could.”
Jaden nodded. “I kind of figured it was something like that.” He ran his hand through his hair. “What bothers me is that Duncan is having a hard time letting it go. You and I, we know the risks of working for Robin. If he thinks we’ve betrayed him, we’re toast.”
“And you walked that fine line during Shane’s abduction, praying you wouldn’t cross it before it was too late.”
Jaden nodded. “I love Duncan. Watching him suffer sucks. But this is one of the reasons I was worried they’d never accept me. I can’t stop being a Blade, no matter how many times it hurts my bondmates. I can’t let someone else get tortured or die just because Duncan and Moira might worry about me.”
“I think they know that, Jade.” She pointed toward the door, where Jaden’s mates stood. Moira had her arms crossed over her chest, scowling at them both equally. Duncan had his arms around her waist, but his gaze was glued to Jaden’s face.
“Oh goody. It’s lecture time.” Jaden dropped back into his chair and waved his mates into the room. “C’mon in, guys!” He started to tilt his chair back again.
Moira stopped him by dropping into his lap. “Idiot man.”
Jaden pointed to himself. “Me?”
“Yes, you.” Duncan’s fingers buried themselves in Jaden’s dark hair as he perched on the arm of Jaden’s chair. “Of course we’re going to worry, but we’re not going to stop you from being a Blade. Just as we have to put up with your work, you’ll have to learn to live with your family worrying about you.”
Jaden’s cheeks flushed. “I know that. But what happened with Robin could happen again.”
Duncan shivered. “No. It won’t.” He pressed his fingers against Jaden’s lips when the vampire started to protest. “Those were very special circumstances. You were trying to protect me in a strange sort of way. You were afraid killing Kaitlynn would make me hate you, so you played along, hoping I’d get here in time to save you all. Blame my father and Kaitlynn for that mess, not yourself. You kidnapped Shane on their orders, then kidnapped Ruby when you realized there wasn’t anything else you could do to stop them short of revealing you were a Blade. If Kaitlynn or Cullen had figured it out they might have killed you before you could find out what was really going on in the clan.”
“Killing Cullen and Kaitlynn without Robin or Oberon’s consent could have resulted in Jaden not only being stripped of his Knighthood but also his life. So don’t blame Robin either. Killing Kaitlynn on your orders, as head of his clan, was just fine.” Akane shrugged when
the trio’s attention turned to her. “Besides, in a strange sort of way, if Robin hadn’t done what he’d done Jaden might not have survived what West did to him.” Another vampire had been working with Duncan’s sister Kaitlynn to take Leo Dunne by force. He’d been promised Jaden’s death in return for doing what Kaitlynn wanted. He might have succeeded if Robin hadn’t already fed Jaden enough blood to change the vampire, making him stronger, faster and a lot less vulnerable.
The arrested expression on Duncan’s face was priceless.
Moira frowned and tapped Jaden’s chin. “I think Shane let Jaden take him.”
Akane stared at Moira. “I think so too.”
Jaden’s hand flew into the air. “Ditto.” He frowned, absently allowing his hand to be captured by Duncan. “But the question is, why?”
“It might have something to do with a vision he had.” Once again, Akane had the trio’s undivided attention. “What? You didn’t know?”
Jaden started to laugh. He patted Moira’s bottom with his free hand. “Gods, I love your family, sweetheart.”
Moira rolled her eyes and got off Jaden’s lap. “Shane’s always been different, known things others didn’t, but I’ve watched you. He doesn’t show any of the signs you do when you’re using your powers.”
“His are completely different. I see the now. Shane sees the future.”
Jaden jumped up, knocking Duncan to the floor. “Wait right here.” He ran out of the room, only to return a few seconds later carrying a metal sculpture. Three figures entwined, two hovering protectively over one, encased in swirling green, gold and gray. He set the statue on Duncan’s desk. “Do you know when he made this?”
“That’s us, isn’t it?” Moira touched the smallest figure. All of them were androgynous in their features, but something about the way that figure stood screamed female.
Duncan got up off the floor and dusted off his ass. “I’m inclined to believe so.” He studied the figures, smiling slightly. “I know who the middle figure is, too.”
Jaden rolled his eyes. “You, obviously.”
Duncan snorted. “If believing that makes you sleep better at night, so be it.”
Artistic Vision Page 9
