by Linda Howard
“Perhaps it is.” Mercy’s lips mimicked his, a smile without warmth or sincerity. “But if you come to my bed, you’ll have to sleep with one eye open to prevent me from murdering you in your sleep.”
“As tempting as the offer is…”
“There’s a guest room at the end of the hall. You can stay there tonight.”
“And tomorrow night?”
“You’ll be gone,” Mercy told him. “You and I will settle this matter tomorrow, and then you’ll leave the sanctuary and never return.”
As Judah studied her, she felt him probing her thoughts.
Don’t even try, she warned him.
If I show you a little bit of mine, will you show me a little bit of yours?
No!
Aren’t you the least bit curious? he asked.
No!
Liar.
“Come upstairs with me. I’ll take you to your room,” Mercy said aloud. “And when you wake later this morning, be sure to stay close to the house. If you venture too far away during the day, someone might see you and question who you are.”
“Don’t you think I could pass myself off as a Raintree?”
“Not with those ice-cold gray eyes of yours.”
“Point well made,” Judah said.
Mercy led him up the stairs to the second floor. He paused as they passed Eve’s room, pushed open the door halfway and looked inside at his sleeping daughter.
“Why do you suppose her eyes are Raintree green?”
“Because she is Raintree,” Mercy replied.
When Judah entered Eve’s bedroom, Mercy followed but didn’t try to stop him.
He halted beside the mattress, where Eve rested on her tummy, her arms thrown out on her pillow on either side of her head. He reached down and touched her long, pale hair.
Mercy held her breath. He lifted Eve’s hair, then parted it with his fingers to reveal the distinct blue crescent moon birthmark that proclaimed her heritage. The brand of the Ansara.
Judah allowed Eve’s hair to fall back into place. He caressed her little head, then turned, looked at Mercy and smiled. And for that one moment Mercy saw love in Judah’s eyes. Love for his daughter.
Wednesday Morning, 8:45 a.m.
Judah’s cell phone woke him from a sound sleep.
Damn! Whoever was calling had better have a good reason.
He grabbed the ringing phone from the nightstand, checked the caller I.D. and answered. “Claude?”
“Cael left Terrebonne this morning.”
Judah sat straight up. “When?”
“An hour ago.”
“Was he alone?”
“No.”
“How many?”
“We’re not sure, but Sidra says only three went with him.”
“Who?” Judah asked.
“We believe he took Risa, Aron and Travis.”
“They could be here in North Carolina by this afternoon.”
“They can’t enter the sanctuary, can they?” Claude asked.
“No, I don’t think so. Not unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless they can somehow use Eve.”
“Is that possible?”
“I have no way of knowing for sure. It’s possible that her presence here has somehow compromised the shield that protects the sanctuary from the outside world.”
“As you well know, that shield also protects the sanctuary from those of us who do not possess power equal to Mercy Raintree,” Claude said. “If that shield has been weakened, then think how much easier it would be for us to take control of the sanctuary. With access to the Raintree home place, we could—”
“No.” Judah lowered his voice. “Even with that advantage, we’re still not ready to battle the Raintree.”
“Not yet, but surely sooner than we had thought.”
“Before we alter our plans for the timing of the next great battle, I have to make sure Eve is safe.”
“That will mean killing Cael before he can harm her or find a way to use her against you.”
“Yes, I know. But it’s either face a possible civil war when his followers rebel or go to war with the Raintree before we’re ready. Moving against Cael now is the lesser of two evils.”
“Do you want me to send someone after Cael and the others?” Claude asked. “Or I can—”
“No, stay there. I need you in Terrebonne. I don’t think Cael will show up here himself. He’ll send Aron and Travis. When they arrive, I’ll be waiting for them, and if they try to enter the sanctuary, I’ll send what’s left of them back to Cael in a gift box.”
“Perhaps you should have waited before revoking the ancient decree,” Claude said. “Once Cael heard what you’d done, he must have known there was no doubt that there was a mixed-blood child out there. A child of yours.”
“I had no choice. If I hadn’t revoked the ancient decree, countless Ansara would have demanded my daughter’s death.”
“I’m sorry I questioned your decision. If Sidra says the child must be protected, then we must protect her.”
“Use whatever means necessary to keep Cael under surveillance. And it doesn’t matter if he knows he’s being watched. In fact, all the better if he does.”
The door to Judah’s bedroom swung open, and Eve sailed in, like a little morning sunbeam, bright and cheerful.
“Good morning, Daddy.”
Crap! Judah slept in the nude; so here he was sitting on the side of the bed stark naked. Holding the cell phone to his ear with one hand, he grabbed the top sheet with his other and yanked it up and over, covering himself properly from waist to knees.
“Who are you talking to on the phone?” Eve bounced up on the bed and smiled at him.
He clutched the top sheet, holding it in place as she scooted closer. “Let me call you back,” he told Claude.
“Don’t hang up,” Eve said. “I want to say hello to your friend.”
Judah shook his head, then asked, “Where’s your mother?”
Ignoring his question, Eve pulled herself up on her knees and reached for the cell phone. Judah gave her a stern look. She hesitated, then called loudly, “Hello, Claude. I’m Eve.”
Claude chuckled. “Having a discipline problem?
“She’s quite the little psychic, isn’t she, to have intuitively known my name,” Claude said.
“I want to talk to Claude.” Eve reached for the phone.
“My daughter’s talents are quite impressive,” Judah admitted. “Look, just say hello to her, will you?” He handed the phone to Eve.
She smiled. “Thank you, Daddy.” She put the phone to her ear and said, “Hi there. You’re calling from far away, aren’t you?”
Judah telepathically tuned in to the conversation.
“Yes, I am,” Claude replied “How did you know?”
“I know things. I have lots of powers, but my mother won’t let me use most of them ’cause I can’t always make them mind me.” Eve lowered her voice to a whisper. “Just like I don’t always mind her.”
She giggled. Claude chuckled.
“I once knew a little boy like you. He possessed great power, but when he was your age, he couldn’t control his powers any more than his father could control him.”
Eve giggled again. “That was my daddy, wasn’t it?” She looked at Judah with pure adoration in her eyes.
Damn those green Raintree eyes!
So like Mercy’s.
“Say goodbye to Cousin Claude,” Judah said.
“Goodbye, Cousin Claude. I’ll see you very soon.”
She handed Judah the phone, then snuggled up against him as he held the sheet in place over his lower body and put in a telepathic SOS to Mercy.
“Your little Eve is quite a charmer,” Claude said to Judah. “Like father, like daughter, huh?”
“Could be.”
“Why does she think she’ll see me very soon?” Claude asked. “Have you told her that you’re bringing her to Terrebonne?”
“No. The subject hasn’t come up.”
Eve tapped Judah on the shoulder. Turning his head to face her, he asked, “What?”
“Tell Cousin Claude I said that I’d see him very soon because he’s coming here to the sanctuary.”
Judah stared at his daughter.
“Why does she think—” Claude began.
“Eve Raintree, come here right this minute!” Mercy stood in the doorway, hands on hips, a parental scowl on her face.
Eve popped off the bed and raced over to her mother. “I got to talk to Cousin Claude. He’s coming to the sanctuary very soon, and we’ll get to meet him.”
Mercy’s gaze met Judah’s, the concern and puzzlement in her eyes matching his.
“We’ll talk later,” Judah told Claude. “Keep me posted on that matter we discussed.”
He didn’t wait for a reply before ending the conversation and tossing his cell phone onto the nightstand. “Eve, why don’t you go with your mother while I grab a shower and get dressed?”
Mercy’s glance skimmed over Judah’s naked chest and shoulders, appreciating his lean body, although she wasn’t consciously aware of what she was doing. He returned the admiring glance. Mercy was certainly easy on the eye. The first moment he’d seen her seven years ago, he’d been struck by how beautiful she was. Even before he looked into her striking green eyes and realized she was Raintree, he had wanted her.
Clearing her throat, Mercy clasped Eve’s hand. “It isn’t polite to barge into someone’s room without being invited.” She looked at Judah. “I’m sorry she bothered you. It won’t happen again.” When she pulled on Eve’s hand, Eve balked.
Judah grinned.
Eve yanked on Mercy’s hand and motioned for her to bend down, which Mercy did. Eve whispered loudly, “I’ll go to my room and play for a while. You and Daddy need to talk about me some more.”
Mercy didn’t have a chance to respond before Eve scurried out of the room, lightning fast, and closed the door behind her.
“She’s quite a little bossy-butt, isn’t she?” Judah said.
“She’s a Raintree princess. Giving orders comes naturally to her, as it should. Unfortunately, she hasn’t learned the art of diplomacy yet.”
“Diplomacy is an overrated art. I prefer action to talk, and I expect my daughter is the same.”
“Eve does like to have her own way. But she’s young, and she’ll learn that she can’t always have everything she wants.”
Judah whipped back the sheet that covered his naked body and rose from the bed. Mercy gasped. He grinned.
“If you see anything you like, you can have it. Right now.”
Mercy stared at him, drinking him in, her gaze lingering over his erection. Then she looked him square in the eyes. “Sometimes what we want is very bad for us, and we learn from experience to avoid danger.”
Judah moved toward her, one slow, provocative step at a time. She stood her ground, not backing away, keeping her eyes glued to his face.
When he reached out and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, she closed her eyes. “You still want me.”
She said nothing.
From that one brief touch, he sensed her desire. “I want you, too.” He slipped his hand around her neck and lowered his head. She sighed. His breath mingled with hers. She opened her eyes, and for just an instant, unaware of her vulnerability, she let the barrier protecting her thoughts weaken.
My God!
He yanked her to him, pressing his sex intimately against her. If she were as naked as he was…“There hasn’t been anyone else, has there? You’re as much mine now as you were that night.”
When he kissed her hungrily, she stood there rigid and unresponsive. But when he gentled the kiss, she whimpered. As he ravaged her mouth with tender passion, she pressed both hands against his chest and tried to shove him away.
Judah grabbed her and pulled her with him as he backed up against the bed. Taking her now would be almost like taking her for the first time. She was untouched by any other man, untutored, practically a virgin.
He toppled her into the bed and came down over her, holding her lifted arms out to either side as she struggled against his superior strength. Straddling her, his knees holding her hips in place, he stared down at her flushed face, and saw both desire and anger in her expression.
“Do you think I’ll let you rape me?” she spat the words at him.
“It wouldn’t be rape, and we both know it. You want me.”
Breathing hard, Mercy narrowed her gaze and focused on him.
He bellowed in pain, and rolled off her and onto his side. Damn her! She’d sent a psychic punch straight to the most vulnerable area of his anatomy, the equivalent of kneeing him in the groin. While he caught his breath and mumbled curses, she got out of bed and walked to the door. Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder.
“I allow you to live only because of Eve,” she said.
He shot a spray of fire arrows at her, their glowing tips outlining the space around her body. She extinguished them before they singed the door behind her.
“You may wish me dead, but you won’t kill me.” His cold stare pinned her to the spot. “And I won’t kill you. Not until I’ve fucked you again.”
TEN
Judah had spent the entire morning with Eve. Under Mercy’s supervision, of course. She had tried to stay in the background, at least part of the time, but she didn’t trust Judah enough to leave her daughter alone with him. Watching father and daughter together exposed her to a side of Judah that she hated to admit existed. In his fascination with and adoration of his child, Judah seemed no different than any Raintree father. He played games with Eve, read to her, ate a mid-morning snack of fruit, cheese and crackers with her, and watched as she tested several of her powers. He instructed her on how to channel her abilities and use them properly. He praised her when she succeeded, and when she failed, he told her that she simply needed more practice.
Kindness, patience and the ability to love were not traits she would ever have associated with Judah Ansara. Since she had fled from his bed that morning seven years ago, she had thought of him as a charmer, a seducer, an uncaring, unfeeling son of a bitch. She had hated him for being an Ansara, a clan she had been taught from childhood were the spawn of the devil.
“Let’s go on a picnic,” Eve insisted when Sidonia had inquired if “that man” would be staying for lunch.
“Eve, honey, I don’t think—” Mercy tried to object.
“A picnic is a great idea.” Judah winked at Eve. “Why don’t you and I raid the kitchen and put our picnic lunch together while your mother changes clothes.”
Mercy glanced down at her attire: neat navy gabardine trousers, a tan cotton sweater, and sensible navy loafers. What was wrong with what she was wearing?
As if reading her mind—God, had he?—Judah said, “Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in jeans or shorts?”
“Yeah, Mommy. Put on shorts like I’ve got on.”
“I’ll change before we leave.” Mercy recognized defeat and accepted it, at least on this one issue. “For now, I’ll go with y’all to kitchen and help fix our picnic lunch.” In her peripheral vision, she caught a glimpse of Sidonia shaking her head disapprovingly.
Half an hour later, Mercy, in cut-off jeans and a red T-shirt, found herself sitting on an old quilt spread out under a huge oak tree in the middle of a nearby meadow. Not a single cloud marred the crisp blue sky. The afternoon June sun filtered through the tree branches, dappling golden shards of light around and over them.
Eve chattered away as she munched on her chicken salad sandwich and potato chips. Judah got a word in edgewise occasionally and seemed amused by his magpie daughter’s endless babble. Several times during the meal, Mercy noticed Judah checking his wristwatch. And when he thought she wasn’t looking, he stared at her. She pretended not to notice the way he was studying her.
After gobbling up two chocolate chip cookies and washing them down with
milk from her thermos, Eve bounded up off the quilt and looked from Judah to Mercy. “I want to practice some more.” She ran several yards away and said, “Watch, Mother. Look at me, Daddy.”
Without waiting for permission, Eve concentrated very hard, and gradually her feet lifted off the ground a few inches. Then a foot. Two feet. Three feet.
“Be careful,” Mercy cautioned.
“Daddy, what’s this called?” Eve asked, spreading her arms and waving them up and down, as if they were wings.
“Levitation,” Judah replied as Eve rose a good ten feet off the ground.
“Oh, that’s right. Mother told me. Lev-i-ta-tion.”
Leaning forward, intending to intervene and catch Eve if she fell, Mercy held her breath. If only Eve weren’t so headstrong and adventurous.
“You’re overprotective.” Judah manacled Mercy’s wrist. “Let her have some fun. She just wants our attention and our approval.”
Mercy glowered at him. “Eve has been the center of my existence since the day she was born. But it’s my job as her mother to approve of appropriate behavior and disapprove of what’s inappropriate. And more than anything else, it is my duty to protect her, even if that means protecting her from herself.”
Judah grunted. “You’ve lived in fear that the Ansara in her would come out, haven’t you? Every time she’s acted up, been unruly, thrown a temper tantrum, you’ve wondered if it was a sign of the innate evil side of her nature—the Ansara in her.”
“I’m going higher,” Eve called. “Watch me. Watch me!”
When Eve levitated a good twenty feet in the air, Mercy jumped up and motioned to her daughter. “That’s high enough, sweetheart. That was great.” She clapped several times. “Now come back down.”
“Do I have to?” Eve asked. “This is fun.”
“Come down, and you and I will play a game,” Judah said.
Eve came sailing down, slowly and carefully, as if showing Mercy that she shouldn’t be concerned. The minute her feet hit the ground, Eve ran to Judah.
“What sort of game are we going to play?”
He eyed Mercy, his look daring her to interfere. “Have you ever played with fire?”
Eve snapped around and looked up at Mercy. “Mother says I’m too young to play with fire the way Uncle Dante does. She said when I’m older—”
