Byzantine Heartbreak

by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  “Marguerite, William Alwyn, Ginny. That’s who we know of. We’re still trying to find and account for everyone. You took the most of whatever it was Gabriel hit you with, but what was left over was enough to keep Tinker unconscious for two days.”

  “You were lucky,” Cáel said, from behind them.

  Nia turned. Cáel was sitting on the edge of the table, his arms crossed.

  “Lucky?” she repeated.

  “You’ve been busy, so I imagine you haven’t heard about the rest of Gabriel’s stunts.”

  Nia shook her head.

  “When I predicted that Gabriel would pick a fight with you,” Cáel said, “I had most of it right, but on one detail I was dead wrong. Gabriel doesn’t see vampires as his enemy.”

  “He destroyed the agency. He’s not a friend,” Ryan growled.

  “You’re not alone, Ryan. He destroyed the United Nations building in New York. And humans don’t have the ability to jump away from danger.”

  Nia moaned. “How many?” she husked.

  “Thousands. They’re still counting.” Cáel’s expression was grim. “He tried the Worlds Assembly, too.”

  “The Assembly?” Ryan frowned. “Why didn’t he succeed there?”

  “Force fields. They’re always up when the Assembly is in session...or pre-session.” Cáel grimaced. “But you never heard that from me.”

  “Force fields were proved theoretically impossible,” Ryan pointed out.

  “So was faster-than-light travel, once, but look at us now.” Cáel shrugged. “The Assembly bought the patents to the technology at a price that guaranteed secrecy and exclusivity.”

  “They didn’t want to share?” Nia asked mildly.

  “They didn’t want anyone else to reverse-engineer the technology,” Ryan said, “and build a weapon that could get past them.” He looked at Cáel. “The price must have been beyond reason.”

  “It just paid for itself.” Cáel grimaced. “At least, that’s what the assembly members are telling themselves. I look at the mess in New York and wonder if the price was too high.” He shifted uncomfortably on the table.

  Ryan studied him. “You know something,” he said. “Something else.”

  Cáel sighed. “We know why they did this.” He ground the heels of his hands into his eye sockets and they waited him out.

  Finally, he sighed. “A month ago, as close as we can figure it, the government on Demetrios rounded up a dozen freed psi and sterilized them. The next week, they did two dozen more. They didn’t announce it on Demetrios, or to anyone else.”

  There was a little silence. Nia felt sick. “But they’re mind-readers, for heaven’s sake! Telepaths!”

  “I think the Demetrions know that,” Cáel said heavily. “Since they’ve got the largest population of psi and scions in all the worlds, except Earth. They exported them heavily when they were first released for commercial purposes and by the time the rest of the worlds figured out that psi were really useful cheap labour, it was too late. The off-world ban had been instituted by then. So there’s only tiny pockets of psi on the other worlds.”

  “Demetrios is a heavy world. They would find life intolerable without the psi. Why would they do this?” Ryan said.

  “Because of their numbers. At the rate psi and scions breed, in about three years time, they would have out-numbered humans.”

  “The psi weren’t a threat to them.”

  “Apparently, the Demetrions felt differently. Communications from Demetrios is sketchy at the best of times, Ryan. We’re learning what we can, but frankly, the psi are better able to get up-to-date information from Demetrios than humans can. They can talk to each other.”

  Nia clenched her hands together. “Gabriel learned what had been done on Demetrios and he acted.” She grimaced. “He reacted,” she amended.

  “That’s our best assumption right now,” Cáel agreed. He rubbed at his eyes again. “We’re waiting to talk to Demetrios, to get them to halt their sterilization process, if they haven’t already. Fact is, we can’t seem to reach them much at all.”

  “The psi there would have reacted, too,” Ryan pointed out.

  “That’s what we’re afraid of,” Cáel replied bleakly. “But if we can get them to stop and if we can contain Gabriel’s people here, then perhaps we’ll be able to find a way out of this.”

  “We?” Ryan repeated.

  “The Assembly.” Cáel stood up. “It was due back in session next week. It has just been returned to emergency session as of tomorrow.”

  A queer ache began in Nia’s heart. She was looking at Cáel, the man she loved and also seeing Assemblyman Stelios, the ruthless politician she had first met. He had changed right in front of her eyes.

  Cáel rested his hands on their shoulders. His thumbs stroked their necks. “You should know that over a year ago, a week after I met you, I decided I wanted you both in my life and I would work for however long it took to make that happen. I didn’t think I would end up loving you as much as I do, but there it is. I love you, both of you. I have given up state secrets to ensure your safety because of my love.”

  Ryan drew in a sharp breath and Cáel touched his finger to his lips, silencing him.

  “I’m human, Ryan. I’m a weak link. Gabriel will exploit that if he discovers it.”

  Fear ripped through Nia as she stared from Ryan to Cáel. She clutched at Cáel’s shirt, afraid that he might disappear at any second. “What are you saying?” she demanded, her voice shaking.

  Cáel covered Nia’s hand with his. “You have your people settled. Somewhere safe and invulnerable, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded. “You need to take Ryan home, Nia.”

  Her fear blossomed into a full-blown terror. “And leave you here? Alone? No, Cáel! No!”

  He shook his head. “I’m heading for Macapá tomorrow and I’ll be there for weeks, while the Assembly is in session. You have to understand, both of you...” He closed his eyes briefly. “You have to know this, even if no one else does. I’m human, yes, but I have dual loyalties in that assembly now. I’ll be fighting as hard, if not harder, for your rights as I ever have for human rights.”

  “They’ll crucify you,” Ryan said.

  “They have to accuse me of wrong-doing, first,” Cáel replied, with a wry grin, “And I’ve learned how to cover my tracks from the very best.”

  He looked at Nia. “I can’t come with you. Your new base is only known to vampires and Gabriel can’t read their minds...not until he visits them personally and they all know what he looks like now. But he can read my mind whenever he wants and he doesn’t have to be even close by. I could betray you just because I’m human, Nia. As much as I want to be with you, as much as I planned and counted on it...I have to let you go. For now.”

  “For how long?” she demanded. “Until Gabriel is dead? Until the world stops turning? Until time itself makes sense? How long?”

  Ryan held her. Soothing her. But it just made her shake harder.

  Cáel took her in his arms, instead. “I don’t know how long. Until Gabriel has been stopped, that is for certain. No one knows how long that will be. I will still see you and Ryan when I can and if you’re feeling kindly, you can take me back into time so we can escape every now and again. But we can’t go all at the same time. Someone must always be here in this time. Someone must always be at your base, keeping watch. We can never let down our guard again. Not until Gabriel has been dealt with.”

  She shook her head in mute denial, all the while knowing that what Cáel was saying was perfectly correct. But she wanted to wail like a child.

  “Ryan...” Cáel murmured.

  Ryan didn’t move. “You decided over a year ago, huh? You decided?”

  Cáel grabbed the back of his neck. “You want an apology? It’s what I do, Ryan.”

  “I’m just glad you’re on our side,” Ryan replied. “You played me like a harp and I’m nobody’s fool.”

  “Thank the gods,”
Cáel muttered and kissed him.

  Nia might have felt some building warmth and arousal at watching their kiss, except that this was a kiss goodbye and the knowledge lay like a lead weight in her heart.

  Cáel let Ryan go. “I love you,” he said, his voice rough. “Try not to forget that, hmm?”

  “Very funny,” Ryan said dryly.

  Cáel swept Nia up against him again. His heart was racing and his body was tight was arousal, which tripped her own responses. She reached up eagerly for her kiss and let the power of it sail her away into a sea of bliss.

  Cáel ended the kiss with a groan and almost pushed her into Ryan’s arms. “Go,” he said roughly.

  Nia put her arms around Ryan’s waist, in preparation for a jump, but she couldn’t take the final leap. The trembling that had possessed her since she had understood what Cáel meant by being the weak link now rose up and evolved into a full body shaking that threatened to make her teeth chatter.

  “I can’t,” she told Ryan helplessly. “I can’t leave him.”

  “We have to,” Ryan replied, his voice hoarse. “It’s for Cáel’s protection as much as it is everyone else in the agency.”

  Nia stepped away from him. “Wait,” she said, reaching inside her shirt. She unclipped the chain at the back of her neck, letting Ryan see what she was doing. She hesitated. “Yes?” she asked him.

  Ryan nodded. “Finally, yes,” he told her. “That’s where it belongs.”

  She walked back to Cáel and held up the chain, with the Celtic tree of life medallion hanging from it. “You must wear this now,” she told him.

  Cáel’s face shifted and worked and for a moment, she saw something flare deep in his eyes. His gaze skittered away from her, then came back. “Put it on,” he told her, his voice as rough as Ryan’s.

  Nia reached up and fastened the chain around his neck. The medallion settled against his chest, inside the open neck of the shirt. She rested her fingertips against it as Cáel’s hands settled around her waist. She could feel him trembling.

  “Go,” Cáel said, pushing her gently back toward Ryan. “You do your work. I’ll do mine and I’ll be waiting when you’re done.”

  Nia looked over her shoulder at him. “Promise?”

  “I happen to be good at keeping promises,” Cáel told her. He rested his hand over his heart, a form of sealing the promise.

  Ryan drew her to him. “He kept his promise to win us for himself, Nia, even though it took nearly two years and most sane men would have laughed at his odds.” He smiled at Cáel. “Don’t give up on us.”

  “Never,” Cáel replied instantly, his hand shifting to the medallion.

  Ryan kissed Nia softly on the temple. “Take me home. The sooner we go, the sooner we can come back forever.”

  “Hurry,” Cáel told them.

  About the Author

  Tracy Cooper-Posey is a national award-winning writer. An Australian, she brought her family with her to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1996 to marry. Tracy is a net citizen— she met her husband on the Internet, and has coordinated discussion groups and teaching on-line. She also built and maintains her own web site. She has taught creative writing both on-line and at university, and entertains students and the public with anecdotes and insights into the publishing industry.

  By the end of 2011, Tracy had published 38 titles, under her own and other pennames. She has won the Emma Darcy Award, and the Sherlock Holmes Society of Western Australia’s Best Pastiche Award. She has been a Romantic Times Top Pick author. Her short stories and articles have appeared in various Canadian and Australian magazines and periodicals, and on the Internet. Thief In The Night was announced as one of RRT Review’s Best Book of the Year, and also selected by eCataromance for their Reviewers’ Choice Awards in February 2007. Her 2004 historical romantic suspense, Heart Of Vengeance, was nominated for a CAPA Award for Best Historical of 2004, a Romantic Times Magazine Reviewer’s Choice finalist for best medieval historical romance for 2004, and was published in Germany in February 2007. In 2010, she was again nominated for the prestigious CAPA awards, in the best erotic paranormal category, and as favourite author, and in 2011, for best paranormal romance. In early 2011 she began self-publishing her novels, with Blood Knot, which has been nominated at least twice for Book-Of-The-Year.

  So far her life has encompassed an eighteen month stint on war-ravaged Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, and at various times she has been a secretary, office clerk, single mother, freelance writer, public speaker, columnist, law student, international traveler, writing teacher, advertising production coordinator (for a national newsmagazine), web-press production coordinator, and the first female cinematograph operator in Western Australia. She has been the editor of WHERE Edmonton magazine, and managing editor of the national magazine, Canadian Cowboy Country Magazine, and for a decade, she taught creative writing at Grant MacEwan University. She currently lives in Edmonton with her husband, a professional wrestler. You can find her web site at http://www.tracycooperposey.com.