Dark Deceiver

by Pamela Palmer

  “We go,” Zander said. But as Zander turned toward the door, Ustanis reached for Autumn.

  Kaderil growled and Ustanis leaped back, both hands raised. “I—I only seek to release her mind.”

  Kaderil sucked in a hard breath around the slowly easing pain. “Do it.”

  Ustanis touched Autumn’s hand and she collapsed. Kaderil swept her into his arms.

  Zander made a sound of cruel laughter. “They’re such gratifyingly fragile creatures, aren’t they?”

  Kaderil held Autumn tight against his chest as the two Esri went out the door and closed it behind them. What was he going to do? She’d seen too much. Heard too much.

  He regretted the need for magic against her, but he had to convince her she was mistaken. And if he couldn’t?

  He must, that was all there was to it. The alternative was unthinkable.

  Chapter 7

  Dreams. Just dreams.

  Kaderil held Autumn’s cold hand and pushed the thoughts into her head as she slept the unnatural sleep of enchantment. Over and over again, he pushed the thoughts into her brain, desperate to make her believe.

  I fell and caught my bracelet. I hit my head.

  She lay stretched out on the sofa, her head cradled in his lap. With the hand that didn’t grip her own, he stroked the loose tendrils of hair from her face. His heart still raced from the fear of seeing Zander stalking her. If he’d killed her…

  It wouldn’t have mattered, his Punisher’s brain avowed. She was just a human and had already served her purpose.

  But deep inside he knew that wasn’t true. She did matter. More than he wanted to admit.

  He pushed more thoughts into her head. I dreamed Esri came after the stone. I dreamed Kade rescued me.

  He had to make her believe she hadn’t truly seen the Esri. That he wasn’t one of them.

  A growl rumbled out of his throat. She was a weakness he could not afford. He’d thought staying away from her would end his infatuation, but every night she entered his dreams, laughing, the sun shining in her hair.

  She’d become his obsession. A weakness, yes. But also a gift. Light shining for the first time into a life of darkness.

  He must make her believe.

  Autumn stirred, causing tension to scream through his body.

  It was all a dream.

  Her lashes fluttered open, blinking with soft confusion.

  “How are you feeling?” He’d spent much of the past week working to make his speech more varied, more human, and working on what the humans called “people skills.”

  Her gaze snapped up. “Kade?”

  A sweet smile curved her lips, then froze half formed and he knew she’d remembered. Fear flooded her eyes as she jerked. “The sculpture.” She struggled to sit up, but he kept firm hold of her hand. “The Esri stole the stone!”

  Dreams. Just dreams. They weren’t really here.

  She escaped his grasp and stumbled to the kitchen. At the counter, she pulled up short and stared at the silver dog.

  Kaderil rose and followed her, afraid to let her out of his reach and the reach of his thoughts. He slid his hand beneath her braid, cupping the soft skin at the back of her neck. To his surprise, she leaned into his touch instead of pulling away with fear, easing some of the constriction in his chest. But it was too soon to relax. She’d not yet remembered everything. And when she did, if his thoughts weren’t enough, she’d be backing away in fear.

  For the first time in centuries, the thought of seeing fear in another’s eyes brought no satisfaction.

  I had the weirdest dream. He pushed the thought into her head, then pointed to the pile of rocks. “Is one of these the stone you were looking for?”

  She nodded, the sunny room glistening in her fiery braid. “This one.” She pointed to the stone in the green ear with the star etched on its surface. Her gaze found his, her brows pulled tightly together. “I am so confused. I swear, the Esri followed me, Kade. They want that stone.”

  His fingers slid up and down the back of her neck. No, the Esri weren’t here. It was a dream. Just a dream.

  “If they followed you, why didn’t they take it?” He gave her a moment, then supplied the answer to her head. They didn’t follow me. It was just a dream.

  She turned to him, her lashes sweeping up to reveal twin gray pools of confusion. “It was just a dream.” Her gaze broke from his, sweeping down with a shake of her head. “But it seemed so real.”

  Kaderil massaged the tense cords forming beneath his hand, his fingers on either side of her neck. He had to remember to ask the questions the human Kade Smith would have asked had he truly stumbled upon her as he claimed.

  “Tell me what happened, Autumn. Did you fall?”

  I fell and hit my head. I dreamed the Esri came and Kade saved me. But it was all a dream.

  Her hand shot out and she clung to the counter, though the boat barely rocked. “I…fell. I had a dream.” When her gaze swept back up, her eyes were filled with a pain that went straight to his heart. “I dreamed you were helping them, Kade. You were helping the Esri.”

  But it was all a dream.

  He turned her to face him fully, sliding his hands over her speckled cheeks, wanting to ease the confusion in her soft gray eyes. “Are you okay?” He didn’t think enchantment could harm a human. Not by itself. But he couldn’t be sure.

  “Yes. I think so.” She looked at him with that grave confusion. “How did I wind up on the sofa?”

  “When you didn’t answer my knock, I looked in the window and saw you lying on the floor. You were unconscious.”

  Dismay tightened her features and she turned away with a groan. “I’m such a klutz! Someone needs to put me in a padded room where I can’t hurt anybody, especially myself.”

  “You’re not a klutz.” He wrapped his hand around her braid and gave a small tug, hating that he was forced to make her doubt herself.

  But the boat gave a gentle rock and she grabbed the counter with both hands. Looking down, she gasped. “My bracelet. The Esri took it off me.” She whirled to face him, her eyes large and accusatory. “It wasn’t a dream! You came in. You stopped the one who was going to hurt me. Then you told the other one to take my holly.”

  Sweet Esria. Kaderil pressed his free hand to her cheek. “I wouldn’t have helped them.” It was just a dream.

  But she didn’t seem to be listening, her gaze darting around the small room, then back to him. Her brows pulled together, dipping to his shirt. “You were wearing these same clothes.”

  “Autumn…” He was losing control. He framed her face with his hands. “This is the same thing I was wearing last week when I met you, so of course you would see me in it in your dream. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

  That much was true, but her eyes were too sharp, too full of doubt. So he did the only thing he could think of to distract her from the thoughts spiraling out of his control. He pulled her against him and kissed her.

  The moment his lips touched hers, the moment he tasted her again, he forgot everything but his need for her. For eight long days he’d craved the taste of her, thought of little but having her in his arms again.

  She melted into the kiss with a moan of pleasure. Her mouth opened over his hungrily and he met her aggression with a sweep of his tongue, devouring her with a hunger that had only built with every day he’d been away from her. She was everything he remembered, everything he wanted. Sweetness and strength.

  Her fingers slid over his cheeks and into his hair, stripping him of all control. All thought flew from his head as he fell headlong into a well of passion. Her tongue twined with his, stroking and sliding against his, sending heat flowing hotly through his veins.

  She smelled of cinnamon and spice, of rain and beauty, and he couldn’t get enough. His hands slid over her back, pulling her hard against him. He wanted to be inside her, deep in her warmth, embraced by her sweetness.

  The violent longing tore through him, jarring him out of the
passionate storm and he pulled back, stunned by his loss of control. She was just a pawn. The kiss was just a ploy. A ploy that had made mush of his brain.

  But he couldn’t let her go.

  Autumn looked up at him, her eyes glazed with desire, her lips damp and swollen from his kisses and it was all he could do not to kiss her again. Instead, he pulled her against him, cradling her head to his shoulder where he wouldn’t be as tempted to give in to his needs. But as he held her against his heart, it wasn’t need that surged through his head, but a keen protectiveness.

  She lifted her head, looking at him with wide, luminous eyes as if searching for the truth of him. Desire smoldered in those gray depths that held both strength and vulnerability.

  He could never harm her. Yet he knew that was precisely what he would do if he stayed with her any longer. But he had no choice. He was all that stood between her and Zander…and certain death.

  The confusion and questions in her eyes slowly disbersed the passion and she pulled out of his embrace.

  “Where’s my bracelet?”

  He sucked in a breath and thought fast as he searched for where Ustanis might have dropped it. His gaze caught on the circular wood lying on the carpet. He didn’t want to return it to her. Not yet. Not when he wasn’t sure she believed the thoughts he’d pushed into her head.

  But if his thoughts hadn’t taken by now, they probably never would. Besides, having the holly again might calm her.

  “There,” he said, motioning to the bracelet on the floor. “Right where I found you unconscious,” he lied. “It must have come off when you fell.”

  Autumn retrieved the bracelet and slipped it on. She sighed as her fingers caressed the rough wood. “Maybe it was all a dream.” Her gaze rose back to his. “I’ve got to tell Jack about the stones. I thought I could protect them, but I was fooling myself. The Esri might not have come yet, but they will.”

  His heart gave a lurch. If that stone went into Jack’s keeping, he’d never get his hands on it again. He took a step toward her, then stopped himself. Autumn McGinn was an exceedingly clever woman to have found the stones in the first place. Perhaps he should discover her plans before he thrust his own thoughts into her head.

  “Why didn’t you tell Jack you’d found the stone in the first place?”

  “I don’t know.” She sighed and made a rueful twist with her mouth. “Yes, I do. I had this foolish dream of handing all the stones to them at once in some grand flourish, making them think I was brilliant and special.”

  “You are brilliant and special.”

  She looked up at him and rolled her eyes. “Yeah. So brilliant I can’t even walk straight without falling and knocking myself out.”

  He smiled, the act almost natural. “That has nothing to do with brilliance. It’s a small matter of coordination.”

  “A small matter…? Easy for you to say.”

  The self-doubt was rife in her eyes again, and he was immensely sorry for it. “Tell me what you’d planned to do with the stones as you found them. Had you planned how you’d hide them?”

  “Sure.” She shrugged. “Though it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.”

  “Tell me.”

  “I’ll show you.” She rose and went to retrieve a small cube from the dining table. She came to where he stood by the counter and handed the box to him. “It’s lined with lead. My plan was to put the stones and some holly into the box, tie it to the boat, then drop the whole thing in the water. I’ve done a lot of research on old superstitions and I think the combination might work. The Esri shouldn’t be able to smell them.”

  Kaderil grinned at her. “Clever girl. Let’s do it.”

  She frowned. “I don’t know, Kade. That dream spooked me. I just want to give the stone to Jack. I don’t want the responsibility for it.”

  He could offer to take it to Jack for her, but then she might tell Jack and he’d start asking for it. No, he needed her to keep the stones here. Hidden and—possibly—safe. “Let’s hide it in the water for now, at least. I really think it might be safest there.” Kaderil took her hand and tugged, not wanting to give her too much time to think. “Let’s hide the stone.”

  She frowned, then gave a resigned nod. “All right.” She gathered the sprig of holly and the rope, then carefully pried the stone loose from the sculpture. As she worked, the confusion and concern slowly cleared from her expression.

  “Do you want to do the honors?” she asked.

  Kaderil hesitated, unable to make sense of the words. “What do you mean?”

  Autumn smiled, lifting his spirits. “Here.” She handed him the stone and when he opened his palm, she dropped the rock in his hand. “You can be the one to put everything in the box.”

  Kaderil smiled, feeling oddly pleased that she was giving him a special role in this simple task. He placed the stone, one of the most powerful in all his world, into the small black box, then dropped the sprig of holly in on top of it. Autumn snapped the lid closed and tied the rope to the box’s handle.

  As they stepped outside, Kaderil searched for sign of Zander or Ustanis, but saw no sign of either. He accompanied Autumn to the back of the boat and watched while she tied the rope to the railing and dropped the box carefully into the water.

  If this worked, Ustanis was going to wonder where the stone had gone, but that didn’t concern Kaderil at all. He knew where it was and that was all that mattered. And when Autumn found the others, he’d know where those were, too. When the time was right, he’d take them all, as long as they stayed here, within his grasp.

  When she straightened, Kaderil took her hand.

  “All done?” he asked.

  She smiled at him, but the smile didn’t ease the creases in her forehead. She was worried the Esri would return. As was he. The only way he could hope to protect her was to keep her close by his side. And the only way to do that…

  His pulse began to quicken. He must profess soft feelings for her. Pretend to be besotted. A role he had never played.

  A role too close to the truth.

  With a deep breath, he dove in. “We need to talk.”

  “About what?” She shivered and tugged on his hand. “It’s cold out here. Let’s go in.”

  He followed her inside and closed the door. When she turned around, he pulled her into his arms, attempting to mirror the look he’d seen on Jack’s face as he gazed at his wife. But as he looked into her soft gray eyes, he lost himself in her beauty.

  “I tried to stay away from you,” he murmured. That wasn’t what he’d meant to say.

  The aching softness that entered her eyes forgave him his honesty.

  “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “Because…” He couldn’t think when she looked at him like that. “Because I was…I don’t know. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. You were…everywhere. In my mind every time I closed my eyes.”

  A charming little smile tilted her lips. “And that scared you?”

  “No. Yes. I don’t…let people get that close.” He didn’t know what he was saying, but the words wouldn’t stop. “I thought I could forget you if I stayed away. I was wrong.”

  His pulse was thudding now. He’d meant to give her platitudes memorized from the numerous human thoughts he’d borrowed. Instead, he’d spoken…he’d spoken the truth.

  He released her and tried to pull away, but she wouldn’t let him go. “Don’t, Kade. I feel the same. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I met you. But it doesn’t scare me. I think it’s a rare miracle. We should embrace it, don’t you think? Maybe it won’t last. Maybe it’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  She lifted onto her toes and kissed his mouth. “And maybe it was meant to be.”

  Meant to be. That was the one thing he could be sure it was not. She was human. He was the Esri sent to kill her friends. This was a relationship that could never be. But the knowledge did nothing to tame the need for her that raged through him. His arms tightened, pulling her clo
ser. If only…

  His cell phone rang, the tune annoying in its jauntiness. With regret, he released her to answer it.

  “Kade? It’s Jack. We’ve got a sighting of an Esri downtown, near the Warner Theater. How soon can you meet us there?”

  “I’m on the waterfront. I’ll leave now.”

  He closed the phone and turned to Autumn. “It was Jack. I’ve got to go.”

  Her gray eyes watched him with tight concern. “I’ll drive you.”

  He wanted to say no. He didn’t want her anywhere near Zander again. But the only way he could ensure her safety was to keep her at his side no matter what.

  “All right. Let’s go.”

  And as he ran for the car, he wondered how, when the time came, he was ever going to let her go.

  Kaderil’s mind raced as Autumn zipped through the streets. This was the opportunity he’d been waiting for, a chance to actually work with the Sitheen after a week of patrolling alone, but the situation carried serious risks.

  The Sitheen might expect him to help them kill one of his own and that was something he couldn’t do. It was strictly forbidden. With the magic that tied all Esri together, all knew both murdered and murderer the moment one of them died. They’d all felt Baleris’s death and known he’d been killed by humans. If Kaderil were to be involved in the ending of either Zander or Ustanis, his own existence would end when he returned home. Somehow he had to find a way to pretend to help the Sitheen without actually helping them. And at the same time, keep Autumn safe.

  “The intersection is at the next light.” Autumn glanced at him, her eyes clear of enchantment and sparkling now with excitement. Something he didn’t want to see. He wanted her far from danger. But there was no such place now.

  A car pulled out of a parking space ahead of them, and Autumn slid into it with little difficulty, then jumped out of the car and joined him on the sidewalk, the thrill of the chase lighting her eyes. He held his hand out to her and she took it, sliding her fingers between his in a move that felt natural and right. As he scanned the area for sign of Esri or Sitheen, he caught sight of Harrison Rand, the quietly intense Sitheen, rounding the corner behind them.