She gave him a shaky attempt at a laugh, dismissing the hard thumping of her heart, or trying to. “It’s okay. I didn’t hear you.” Of course not. She’d been too busy trying to eavesdrop on what was happening one story down.
“How’s she doing?” He tossed a glance over Lily’s shoulder into the room behind her where Tabitha lay unconscious.
“No better.” Despondent over that very fact, her shoulders sagged a little.
“Hey.” His voice dropped, rich with concern, flowing around her with understanding. “She’s going to make it.”
“I wish I shared your optimism.”
“You do. You don’t recognize it anymore. You’re the most dedicated friend I’ve ever seen. If you believed she didn’t have a chance, you wouldn’t sit with her every night.” Boyish charm flitted across his features, then disappeared as if his words embarrassed him. Except, if she hadn’t known any better, she could’ve sworn she caught the slightest sliver of sadness in his gaze before he turned on that grin. The same grin that had been one of the constants of their freedom. Nathan was one happy kind of guy.
“I’m on my way down,” he said, giving away nothing of his thoughts.
“It’s about the attack, isn’t it? What they’re discussing?” She felt her heart thud against her ribs, awash in layers of trepidation, but she had to know.
He ran a hand over his spiky blond hair. “Yeah, and if Diego was pissed by the attack, this is going to make him furious.”
“I want to know.” She could protect herself better if she understood what was happening. She already knew her pursuer intimately. She refused to let herself be at that bad of a disadvantage ever again.
“I don’t blame you,” he told her, not sounding in the least surprised. He looked directly at her, seeming to debate his next words, then finally saying, “You should know. Joaquin is here.”
She blinked and stared at him, her body trembling now for an entirely different reason, and dread was nowhere to be found. Her mouth suddenly felt like it had been stuffed with cotton balls. “He is?”
“He arrived with Diego today,” he explained. She’d been unaware of what time any of them had arrived because she’d slept for so long.
Instantly, her thoughts were tumbling, racing, and confused. He was there? Why? Had he followed her? Them? She didn’t believe he was intent on jeopardizing them—he’d ensured their escape the night before. Then, why was he there?
“Well, that’s easy enough to answer. To meet you.”
She managed to stifle the gasp of surprise in her throat, but her widened eyes snapped to the stairs as if drawn to the one man who lay out of her sight. “Quit that!” His rebuttal was a low, rumbling chuckle.
“Come on,” Nathan invited with his easy going smile and a rolled shoulder, apparently unaware of the discussion happening between her and that mysterious, disembodied voice. “You’re awake. Might as well hear it, too.”
She nodded, suddenly wary of Nathan’s news. His jovial attitude didn’t hide the apprehension or concern over what he was about to share. Cautious of the coming moments, and the unknown man downstairs, she left Tabitha’s door half closed and trailed behind Nathan.
* * * *
Joaquin felt the need to hold his breath, but hadn’t breathed out of necessity in centuries. He was going to meet the owner of that lovely voice. Finally. Since the first words, the shout that had stunned his mind enough to freeze him, he’d wanted only this. Every word had heightened this one need. Someone like Lily had never happened to him in his long life. The world that was unveiling before him was as unexpected as she was.
Last night she had been incredible, a strength to admire, giving him a focus within the bus without hesitation to keep its immense size ensconced in his whirled shadows. The storm had been extra, but had done its job, forcing visibility to be nonexistent.
He’d fed to replenish his weakened body not long after Diego intercepted the bus, then with Tani safely with the travelers, the two men had wreaked a nightmare of havoc on the force of soldiers. The night had passed with a grim satisfaction. There was no real enjoyment in destroying traces or proof, only in the knowledge those men would never see the dawn again. Diego had destroyed all the electronic equipment with a power that had shocked Joaquin, a strength he’d never seen, and was too thankful he’d never felt the need to turn it fully on him. He’d learned in no short order to respect the other man’s depth of powers and knowledge as they worked side by side, silently slaughtering the ones who wanted to find the women who, even then, were asleep over his head. He knew for certain at least three were.
Though, the only person he was concerned with who wasn’t asleep stood partially hidden behind another vampire a few steps from the bottom of the staircase. Joaquin made no move to approach her, even though anticipation made it hard for him to stand still, eagerness buzzing through his blood like an unending burst of energy.
Delayed shock and disbelief infiltrated his scrutiny when he realized there was another of the Brethren on the stairs. He slanted Diego a look. Just how many Brethren were involved in this? In his long life, Joaquin had never seen two for any length of time. Yet, here he stood with Diego holding Titania protectively at his side, and now this young blood. He was as close to baffled as he’d ever been.
“Nathan,” Diego greeted the young man as he neared.
“Good to see you made it,” he said with a chuckling laugh that seemed to lighten his youthful, swaggering steps. This vampire was too young to have such a travesty happen to him. To have been transformed to Brethren. It wasn’t a situation he would have wished on any person.
Nathan swung toward Joaquin. “Hey.” He greeted him as if he belonged there.
Joaquin was still unsteady in this situation and could only wait to see what happened next. He merely dipped his head in answer.
“You cool with this?” Nathan asked Diego, inferring with a shrug whether or not to include Joaquin in the discussion.
“He is welcome,” Diego replied. “He may not take on the fight, but he is a friend.”
Nathan shrugged, apparently eased with the declaration.
“Come on, Lily,” Tani encouraged, beckoning her to join them. “You could be a huge help on this. You remember the most from your stay with Tenorio.”
She rolled her shoulders, stiffening her spine with an indrawn breath, then walked the rest of the way into the living room. “I’ll help you no matter what it takes,” she told them, her gaze as clear as her voice. “You know that.”
“This is Joaquin,” Diego said, watching their reactions, unmoving in his scrutiny.
Lily stopped only a few feet from him, illuminated in the light, her eyes wide and unblinking as she finally put a face to the voice, the same as he.
And her face was beautiful.
Thick waves of russet and sunset hair flowed over her shoulders in disobedient curls. Eyes the color of ocean-kissed sand watched him, and when she parted her lips on a slow breath, they reminded him of the summer tulips he’d seen during travels through Europe. She was tall, which was probably the largest surprise. He hadn’t expected her to be voluptuous, or so lovely. His own preconceived images were nothing compared to the real woman’s beauty. At that moment, it was a good thing he didn’t breathe.
She would have stolen it from him.
Two casual paces forward stopped him well short of her space, and he simply bowed. “It is an honor to meet you at last, Lily. You will never know what hearing your voice two nights ago did for me, but I am forever and always indebted to you,” he said with a total lack of pretentiousness, stating nothing less than the truth. This woman should never know the whispered sound of a lie ever again.
She moved forward, narrowing the gap even more, and held out her hand, her eyes never leaving his face. “Thank you for your help last night. We never would have had a chance without it.”
Delicately, as if holding a precious bloom, he gathered her hand, the smooth skin pressed deliciously agai
nst his own. “I made a promise to you. I do not break promises.” Then, before the tremor he felt against his palm could become too noticeable and expose the fear he felt all but arcing off her skin, he released her with a lingering brush of warmth. What surprised him more was the sensation of her skin against his. He’d known she would be special, but he hadn’t expected to this extent.
“Tell us what you found, Nathan,” Diego said bringing everyone’s attention to the moment at hand, the request more an order. By his expression, Diego wasn’t expecting anything good.
Nathan sat down when Diego did, his hands hanging limply between his knees where he slumped. “It’s not good. Those two screens you brought were GPS navigational trackers.” Diego nodded as if he wasn’t expecting anything different. Joaquin watched them all, keeping an eye on Lily as the tension continued to ratchet higher and higher with Nathan’s report. She sat quietly, staring directly at Nathan as nearly indiscernible flashes of horror darkened her eyes and paled her cheeks. “The screens themselves couldn’t tell me much. I did, however, discover what they were tracking.”
Titania tucked herself tighter against Diego as he nodded, ready to hear the worst.
“One of the rescuees has an embedded GPS chip somewhere on their person. They both read the chip’s location to within less than a hundred feet in radius. We may have set him back but…” He flashed Lily an apologetic look. “We’re sitting ducks again.”
“Is there any way to find out who it is?”
Joaquin studied Diego’s expression. Firm, controlled. He would do anything to protect those under his care. It raised him higher in Joaquin’s estimation. The confusion he’d felt was slowly dissipating. Just because he’d never encountered a situation like this changed nothing. The fact was, Brethren were living with, and protecting, humans whom they had taken into their care. He didn’t let his attention for Lily drop even so.
“We can send them all to different locations and see who has it. The problem is, whoever it is, is already here.” His face tightened. “The location is already in someone’s hands.”
A gasp whipped his gaze immediately to focus on Lily once more.
“We need to remove it,” Titania said. “But how? If we take it out and drop it someplace, will they think we’re moving again?”
“It’s possible.”
“How do we find out which of us it is?” Lily asked. Joaquin didn’t hear a single break in her voice even though the strain of it was apparent in her pale features. A remembered pain flashed briefly, then as quickly disappeared from her tawny eyes. The more he watched her and the way she interacted and responded to those in the room, the less he believed Diego to be behind her pains and fears. Everything about this was all so unusual from what he knew. Even though he doubted Diego’s culpability, he still silently vowed to watch over the redhead sitting ramrod stiff on the edge of the nearest couch, well away from everyone—and him. His first duty was to Lily, and her safety.
“X-ray or MRI would be the best way to locate it, but we can’t take over a facility to do it. Whatever it is, it has to be tiny. Injectable.” He let out a rough sigh. “Practically undetectable, if at all, would be my assumption.”
“A time bomb,” Lily whispered with a grimace, her lips thinning as she said it. “That is definitely his style.” She met everyone’s gazes, even his for a brief second. “Tenorio is one sick man. It could be any of us. We’ve all been injected.” She shivered once, but regained her composure. “Maybe even all of us.”
“Is that possible from what you got out of the trackers?”
Joaquin’s gaze went from Lily to Titania and her question, her brow tight with tension and worry, equal to every person in the room.
Nathan shook his head. “It’s possible, but I only found one signal.”
“Then that only leaves one thing to do.” Diego ran a hand over Titania’s shoulders at a comforting pace. “We have to stop him before he gets here, and if we cannot, remove the beacon leading him here.”
“How are we going to do that?” Lily asked, sitting up straighter, her hands clasped in front of her. It wasn’t enough to hide their trembling from Joaquin. “Do the GPS systems work in reverse?” she asked Nathan hopefully.
“Unfortunately, no,” Nathan replied.
Her shoulders slumped at his answer.
“Diego,” Nathan said with deliberate warning in his tone. “We can find out who it is; we may never find the chip.”
Silence fell across the room like the emptiness of sound after a death knell has been rung. Joaquin was sure he heard leaves falling outside in the darkness it was so quiet within the walls of the home. Watching each, it was clear everyone came to their own conclusions about the direness of their situation.
Diego shared a look with Titania, catching Joaquin by surprise, never expecting such an intimate gesture from the silent and undoubtedly intimidating leader of the group. Then, the warrior stood. His usual, even expression was drawn under the strain of the evening. “We know where Tenorio can be found. We will start there.”
For some reason, Joaquin was almost sure he could also hear the tick of that time bomb along with the fall of the leaves.
“Houston and Laney will stay to guard the house,” Diego continued. “Nathan, are you willing to go back with us?”
He shrugged. “I’m free.” Joaquin wondered at his quipped return, but didn’t judge him when his gaze was flat, yet his voice wasn’t. It seemed they all had secrets. Joaquin had no room to judge. “I’ll make sure the security is up. Houston knows how to work it.” He tossed a glance toward Joaquin. “Is he staying?”
Suddenly, all the eyes in the room were pinned on Joaquin.
“He is a welcome guest. It is up to Joaquin.” Titania offered a kind smile, a smile of warmth, welcome and friendship. He swallowed, feeling and witnessing more in the last hour than he had in so long. The last memories of his emotions were nothing more than dust.
“It’s not only up to me,” he silently shared with Lily. “If, sincerely, it would not disturb you, I will gladly offer to stay.”
“I can be of help,” he told the others in the room out loud to further his chances of acceptance, so he could be near if Lily needed him. She was, and remained, his sole reason, but he understood the dangers they faced were not to be minimized. Those affected everyone in the house. “I am at your disposal,” he directed to Diego with a note of respect. If Joaquin was allowed to stay, he would accept Diego’s law and rules. A mutual understanding was returned. That only left the one person who mattered, who hadn’t said one word yet to leave a clue to her thoughts.
Lily’s quiet, yet calm tones floated to him from where she sat. “I don’t have a problem with it.” She let out a fast breath, as if steeling her words. “I trust him.” Then, she met his gaze and impaled him with a true, if only slightly, tremulous smile. She stood from her seat, stepping forward, and he rose to meet her. He restrained himself from reaching out and touching her, shaken at the swift rise of want spurring the sensation of feeling her skin within his again. There was an inner strength in the soul of the woman before him, a strength he honestly believed wasn’t recognized beneath the depths of her pain.
“Thank you,” she said. Inside, he bathed his soul in the sound of her voice, but knowing her fears were very close to the surface, he allowed none of it to show in his expression. Her trust was fragile. He wouldn’t threaten their tenuous link.
“Then Joaquin is welcome. We will not leave before everyone in the house is familiar with his presence, but we cannot delay for long.”
“Agreed.” Nathan echoed Diego’s consent.
“Tomorrow night then.” Titania stood, her smaller frame all but enveloped beneath her husband’s long embrace. The fact that they did consider themselves husband and wife still rocked Joaquin’s perceptions of what he knew about the Brethren.
“I need to check on Tabitha,” Lily said, turning, saying nothing else to climb the stairs.
“I guess tha
t leaves me to give you a room,” Nathan said to Joaquin. Diego led Titania out the front door without another word. Joaquin’s place had been decided. He was welcome, and for the woman disappearing up those stairs, he was staying.
Joaquin’s gaze followed her as she ascended the stairs, jeans wrapped around long legs, and a dark blue sweatshirt under the fall of her hair. The rolling waves reached to the middle of her back, the red and golden hues glinting in the light from overhead. The vibrant curls seemed to gather the light and play with it, sending the glittering beams out into the world in a plethora of color.
Just when he thought he had reached the end of his time on earth, redemption for his failures appeared out of the darkest night. He could help Lily. He could ensure her safety, her happiness. He could do for her what he had failed to do for Angelica. And when she was safe, he would walk into the sunrise, as he was meant to do, what he should have done long before now. He hadn’t been looking for redemption in this life, believing the penance he had paid over the centuries had been payment for his sins. Maybe he had finally proven himself enough to accept this challenge, accept his true redemption, which was currently disappearing through a doorway on the second floor. Or maybe even this was his reward for paying his debt to his wife’s death. Either way, he had heard Lily’s pain, the same way she had heard his. He couldn’t turn his back on her now.
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