"Come on," she urged, threatened by the softness in him. "Take me back."
"You’ll have to give me a kiss first."
Jaden pursed her lips together in mock defiance. Tyr fell to his knees. Leaning over, he didn’t give her time to protest as he pushed his lips to hers. Jaden laughed lightly and instantly melted, remembering the all too recent, familiar feel of him. The armor seemed to melt from her skin, replaced by his hand on the curve of her hip. Just as swiftly, he pulled away.
"Open," he commanded her softly.
Jaden moaned, opening her eyes as if from a dream. Wearily, she yawned asking, "Did that happen?"
Tyr nodded and responded quietly, "I told you I would show you."
"But all I saw was trees," she pouted. Suddenly, she realized she was laying naked beside him in full view. She sat up on the bed, remembering herself. Feeling a twinge in her inner thigh, she glanced down. A bruise formed around two puncture marks where he had bit her. She got up from the bed. A sickening dread overcame her with shame.
"Would you like to go somewhere else?" he offered roguishly. "Come lay down, I’ll show you a castle. Sometimes the knighted men can be convinced into fighting."
"No, thanks, I’ll stay in this century for now." Under her breath, she added, "I don’t like you having that kind of control."
Tyr watched Jaden shrug into her clothing. His good humor went with her nakedness. He felt her stiffening up towards him and was helpless to stop it.
"Come back and lay down," he urged quietly, his gaze watchful and unrevealing. "I can heal that bruise for you."
"Ah, no, I shouldn’t. In fact, we need to get a few things straight."
He said nothing. Jaden finished pulling up her jeans and turned to him. She winced at the pain in her leg.
Weakly, she said, "That is to say we shouldn’t have done this and it won’t be happening again. You are a vampire and I am a dhampir. It’s wrong."
"Do you never grow tired of that song?" he murmured menacingly. She felt the mild wave of displeasure her words caused him. A brow rose over his unyielding blue eyes. Jaden couldn’t deal with his emotions at the moment. She did her best to block them and he tried to keep them from her. Her mind reeled, tipping back and forth in near hysteria. Her heart thudded at a dangerous pace. She endeavored to remain completely calm, but it was hard.
"We are enemies," she said, mostly to remind herself. She erased the kindness of his expressions from her mind. It was easy, staring at the icy mask he now presented her. Her voice did not rise, but became fevered, as she said, "The truce is gone and there is nothing we could ever do to get it back. We made a mistake, one that we won’t make again. We are enemies! This isn’t right. It should never have happened!"
Tyr stayed quiet, his head cocked to the side as he studied her.
"Don’t look at me like that! You know what I say is true!" she hissed, a part of her nearing hysteria. Tyr knew the emotion in her kind well, but it was the first sense of it he had gotten from her. Growing frustrated, she charged, "Don’t forget why you have brought me here. You have your duty and I have mine. Every moment is a test. Even now I can feel you judging me. Well, it won’t work. If anything, I am good at my job. My flesh may be weak, but my will is strong."
"Then are you admitting to the crimes for which your uncle stands accused. You know of what he has done?" Tyr sat before her completely naked, his body in easy repose. He was unashamed of himself, despite the unnerved way her disconcerting eyes tried too hard not to look at him. If this was the way she wanted it, then so be it. "You are admitting it?"
Blinking heavily, Jaden realized he was livid.
"No," she said in confusion. She tried to focus. Maybe if she gave him something, he would return the favor. Afterward she could work her way out of the mess she was in. "I found something, but.... I don’t know. I couldn’t read it. Can’t you tell me what it is you think Mack has done? Just tell me and let me go. I’ll ask him about it myself. I’ll find out the truth. Let me deal with it."
Tyr eyed her carefully. He ignored the insult of her rejection for the moment. Lowering his jaw, he questioned, "What did you find?"
Jaden’s gaze turned wide. All softness was gone from his tone. By looking at his stony features, she couldn’t tell anything had passed between them. She detected a bit of crimson near his male sex. It echoed the taste of his blood in her mouth. What had she done?
Jaden hastened to her bag. Then, a sudden doubt crept into her mind. He had used her. He had been horny and she was closest thing available to slake his lust and she had put up a pitiful, weak fight. She shuddered violently. He wasn’t her friend. He was her jailer. There could be no truce in this war.
Her hand hesitated as it touched the book. As an alternative, she grabbed the yellowed piece of paper she’d discovered in her mother’s box. With a heavy heart, she pulled it out and went back out into the room to discover Tyr was completely dressed. With trembling fingers, she lied, "I looked around like you suggested and this was all that I found."
Tyr reached out. Her look stopped him.
"If I show you this, then you must share with me what you know also," she decreed.
Tyr nodded firmly. He took the paper from her with steady fingers. Inside he seethed at her indifferent dismissal of him. She used him to get what she wanted and now she was done with him. A wall went up between them, neither of them facing the feelings that tried to surface. It was easier to concentrate on work and it was definitely easier to their natures to fight.
"I can’t read it." Her body fluttered with insecurities and doubt. She waited for a tender sentiment and found only hardness. Her body was still loose with the pleasure his gave her. "I don’t understand the words. I’m not even sure what language it is in."
"Gaelic," he answered. Scanning the paper, he frowned.
"Where did you get this?"
"In a box next to a picture of my mother." Chills ran over her. "What is it? Can you tell me?"
"It’s an incantation of the old magic to get a female human pregnant with a vampire baby. It explains how your mother got pregnant. These were supposed to be destroyed long ago. The only known copy was traced to a French family of witches in the fourteenth century. It was assumed their copy was lost to time."
"My uncle’s tutor was French. Maybe she gave it to him. He said she was like a mother to him," Jaden offered, trying to sound confident. She swayed on her feet. She couldn’t believe that Mack knew all these years how it was she was born. By all research, it should never have been possible and he told her that he didn’t know. She remembered asking him endlessly as a young girl, searching for answers to her past.
"It makes sense," Tyr mumbled, lost in thought. "Mack must have discovered Bhaltair and Rhona were lovers and used this incantation on them."
Jaden paled, turning white to hear her father’s name said out loud and from Tyr’s precise lips. Her stomach folded in on itself, twisting into horrible knots. Her mind flashed, flooding her with memories of his death. The torrent of emotion and regret hit her like a mace. In her current state of insecurity the rush was hard to fathom.
Gulping, she said, "Maybe it was not Mack who used it. Maybe he only found it later and kept it."
"No," Tyr denied absently. His finger ran over the words. "This particular recipe calls for the blood of a human brother and MacNaughton would’ve had to perform the ceremony."
"Oh," Jaden breathed, growing nauseous.
"Bhaltair already made known his intent to turn Rhona to be with him to the council," the dark knight continued, beginning to pace as he pieced the puzzle together. "And Rhona was most willing until she got pregnant. They must have decided that she would wait and bear the child because if she was a vampire the child would never exist. You would never exist."
Tyr turned triumphantly to Jaden, a large part of his puzzle solved. The council had debated for years how it was Bhaltair got the human woman pregnant. Charts of cosmic alignment had been pondered over, Rhona’s d
iet, her lineage. All came to nothing.
Jaden swayed on her feet. Tyr, in his preoccupation, didn’t notice.
"But your mother was killed when you were only a year," he said.
"And she was never turned," Jaden offered insipidly. "Her death was an accident. She fell off a horse."
"She was stabbed," Tyr debated, his brow furrowing as he absently disputed Jaden’s claim. "I’ve seen the official report of the body from the investigating vampire’s own file. I was sent to see what would happen to the dhampir child. You were given to your uncle. But why would Mack need you? It doesn’t make sense."
Jaden’s eyes clouded. She couldn’t get Bhaltair’s face from her mind. She couldn’t focus past the lies her uncle had told her. For when she looked at Tyr, she knew he spoke the truth.
"Something’s missing from the story, though," Tyr mused. His eyes scanned the paper. He was lost in deep thought. "Mack took you away, trained you. For awhile you were lost to us, even Bhaltair. He petitioned the council for help several times. When we finally located you, you were full grown. Bhaltair tried to approach you once, I’m told."
"Yes," Jaden said, remembering the man who stood before her, arms open wide, a smile across his undead face. She remembered every detail of the encounter, every heated word. Oh, how she hated him then. How she despised him for her existence! "I sent him away. I told him I never wanted to see him again."
"Yes, he came back to Europe and spoke on your behalf to the tribal council. Due to your upbringing, they had decided to kill you if you didn’t accept your father’s offer to join him. He begged them to give you another chance. They granted his request to wait a few years so that your anger was given time to lessen. Then, this past spring, he went back over to meet with you and--"
"I killed him," she whispered. Her heart broke into a thousand pieces. She always regretted that night she sent her father away. She always prayed he’d come back for her, take her away with him. Her dreams had been answered--only she botched them.
Tyr’s face snapped sharply to hers, seeing the pale line of her ashen features. Tears welled up in her gaze, dripping softly over the edge. She swayed, sinking to the floor.
"That is my crime, isn’t it?" she questioned in a growing daze. She had known all along. She had waited for someone to come and punish her and here he was. Staring blankly at the floor, she began sinking into the abyss of insanity. The punishment was a grand one. He made her live to face it. He refused to kill her for it. She could no longer live with what happened. The memory haunted her dreams. She saw her father’s face, disappearing into ash, blowing over her skin. It covered her flesh until she was made to scrub it from every crevice of her body and hack it out of her lungs. It had taken weeks of showers until she was satisfied the ash was gone and even then, she could still see it on her if she looked hard enough.
Mumbling to herself, she rocked. "You were supposed to kill me. I went to you so you could kill me. You were supposed to be young. I made sure of it. A young one can’t sense me. That is what Mack says. A young one is perfect. He doesn’t know it’s me. He’ll kill me and then it will be over. A young one won’t report it. He won’t know to. No one will ever know. I’ll die undisturbed. No one will ever know."
Tyr felt the slipping of her reason. It was the curse of the dhampir. One small thing and they could snap. Only what she confessed to was no small thing. She had murdered her own father--a father that had changed his undead life around because of her existence, a father who refused to kill even the smallest of insects as he waited for his daughter to grow. Setting his mouth in a tight line, Tyr went to her. He couldn’t stand to feel her pain, her deeply wounding shame. Duty warred within him. He wasn’t meant to comfort the guilty. He was meant to watch her and discover the truth and when he had her confession, once he knew the truth, he was to take her to be punished.
Glancing at him, she grimaced in confusion, "You’re old."
"Jaden!" Tyr growled, taking her about the shoulders and roughly shaking her. Her head snapped back and forth. Emotion and duty clashed inside of him. She wasn’t responding. His voice was low, harsh, as he yelled at her. "Damn it, Jaden! Come back!"
Tyr raised his hand as if to backhand her. He hesitated. A frown conquered his face. His hand turned into a clenched fist. He couldn’t strike her. Easing his grip on her shoulders, he pulled her into his embrace. Stroking her hair, he cradled her into his arms. He ignored her repeated rambling about their first meeting in the alleyway.
Jaden settled into his comforting embrace, her words drifted to an incoherent mumble before stopping. Tyr lifted her jaw, forcing her blank eyes to look at him. She stared past him, through him. Seeing her lips so close to his, he leaned down to gently kiss her.
"It’s all right, Jaden," he whispered into her mouth, as he soothingly touched her. His mind delved into hers, leading her back to him. His thumb worked over her face, brushing aside her tears.
Jaden felt the movement on her mouth, the tugging in her mind that urged her out of the stupor she fell into. Her fingers twitched, clinging onto the enfolding comfort of a warm chest. Tyr’s nearness engulfed her. His steady strength was a balm that stung her soul. She didn’t deserve his kindness. Her mind jolted to awareness. She pulled away from him with a gasp.
Her eyes clear, her mind once more her own, she recoiled from him. Tyr had no choice but to release his hold. It tore at his chest to see her so broken. Hot tears poured anew down her face, staining her cheek.
Vehemently, Jaden demanded, "Dispense your justice, Tyr. Kill the murderer. It is what your people believed, is it not--an eye for an eye, a life for a life? Do what you were sent to do, Tyr. Finish me. I plead guilty."
Chapter Ten
Time rolled by slowly in the cave home. Jaden slept throughout the day in Tyr’s bed, keeping with his vampiric schedule. Tyr rested on his couch, leaving her alone in his room. During the long nights, they didn’t speak. Silence was marred only by the subtle shuffle of Jaden’s feet, the crinkling page from some old book Tyr read, and most predominately by the popping wood burning in the fireplace.
After Jaden’s plea for death was again denied, Tyr carried her protesting body to the bed. Her anger at his refusal lasted only a moment before he drifted his hand before her face and forced her into a deep sleep.
He had then sat across from her, watching her in her slumber. He examined the soft glow of orange on her skin as it faded to becoming shades of darkness. And when she finally awoke, he was still there watching. She’d hardly spoken since. The part of her soul that glistened normally in her expressive eyes was dead.
Jaden suppressed a yawn, staring blankly at the licking flames. Nothing seemed to catch her attention, but in truth, she felt herself most inclined to stare at the little arrangements of history nestled into Tyr’s walls. Her mind reeled with her past, her uncertain future, her confusion over her captor and his motives. He had seen her in her weakest moment, the point where her fragile sanity broke into a thousand glass shards. No one had ever seen her brought low. She was mortified that it had been him. He now knew her weakness. The question was would he exploit it? Sighing again, deep and long, she closed her eyes.
Tyr had watched her silently from his chair for most of the night, leaving to disappear out of the side entrance of the cave when he could take no more of her stillness. The questions he needed answered swam in his head, trying to find their way out from his brain. He suppressed them, as he suppressed any tenderness that tried to escape him for her. He couldn’t allow himself to be weakened by her. She was his assignment. Somehow things had gotten messy, but she was still a duty he must perform. He wouldn’t risk his very existence for a mere slip of a human, no matter how alluring the package.
Occasionally over the long silence Tyr coerced her into eating. A few times Jaden would get up to relieve herself, or to take a quick bath out of a chilled water basin he got at her request, or to change her clothing. For the most part, he let her be, knowing she had a lot on he
r mind. And what were a few days to a creature that had lived so many? Even with the thought swimming in his head, Tyr was impatient.
He sorted the facts slowly in his mind. If she collapsed when confronted with the result of her actions, then surely she was not in league with her uncle. Though an angry woman by nature, she didn’t have a heart for pure cruelty--and Tyr had seen the numerous faces of pure cruelty.
On the other end, maybe it was only the result of her crimes having been discovered. Any mortal who knew the existence of the tribal council would break under the prospect of being brought before them. If the mortal was guilty, then it was only a matter of time before they cracked.
"You don’t eat. How do you resist the hunger?"
Tyr’s head snapped up, turning from his chair to her clear jade eyes. Her face was calm, under complete control. Her voice was coherent. The fog around her had suddenly and unexplainably lifted.
"I eat," he answered quietly. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I’ve a storage of blood in this cave. It sustains me."
"Oh," she mumbled. "Then you don’t kill?"
"Only for duty." He leaned forward, easing his elbows onto his knees. His tapered fingers tapped lightly in hidden thought.
Jaden’s eyes roamed over his masculine form. A chill swept over her spine. She’d spent many hours contemplating her deeds, but even more time was spent under the spell his touch had wrought into her skin. He didn’t touch her, didn’t try to kiss her again, and she didn’t go to him. But she wanted to.
"The night I met you in the alley," she said calmly, trying to focus her thoughts outside herself. "That was duty?"
"Yes," he answered. His eyes were blank, carefully taking her in. "He was a vampire I was sent to deal with."
"I though you were sent to deal with me," she wrinkled her nose ruefully. Her guarded laugh followed.
"You are one of my duties," he said.
Only a duty? she thought before adding aloud, "Oh."
"I had several others to contend with in New York."
The Jaded Hunter Page 18
