My mother cut him off. “And Theo and Elle are...different, too?” she said, again unable to say the words.
Danial glowered at me. I looked defiantly right back at him. My stepfather said nothing, playing it cool. He’d likely ask my mother to repeat everything for him at least twice later.
“Yes, it’s all true,” Danial said finally. “But these are not Sar’s secrets to tell you. Theo will be upset you know. Elle loves you. I think of Elle as my daughter, Tina. Please don’t hurt her, even—”
“I am not going to hurt her,” my mother said forcefully, recovering a little of her composure with anger. “I love Elle and Theo. It doesn’t matter to me if they aren’t...what I thought they were. They’re still part of the family.”
“Grandma?” Theo asked in his small voice.
She looked down at him, her eyes moist. “What is it?” she said, again smoothing his hair back.
“Can I come next Christmas when Mom and Elle do?” he said softly. There was pain in my chest hearing his hope, mixed with a little fear that the answer would be “no.”
“Of course,” my mother said, hugging him to her. “Of course you can come, um—” She looked at me.
I mouthed “Theo” to her.
“—Theo,” she finished, giving him a smile.
He gave her a dazzling one back, so much of Danial in it I had to smile myself. My mother thought the same, because she looked up at Danial, and said, “You can come, too.”
“You do not have to include me because of a sense of pity,” Danial said emotionlessly.
My mother interrupted him. “You are the father of Sar’s child, Danial. I don’t understand how you could be what she said you were and...um, have done that, but you obviously did.” Her face flushed, as she floundered. “You’ve taken good care of him for however long he’s been, um—”
Danial let out a breath, then leaned over, touching Theoron gently on his shoulder. “Yes, Theoron lives with me. Your daughter went through a lot to give him to me, because she knew I wanted a child with her more than anything. Because he is like me, he needs to stay with me. Sar couldn’t take care of him, though she wanted to badly. But he is growing fast now, and you should know by next winter he may well appear much older than he does now.”
“How much?” my mom whispered.
“He may be an adult.”
My mother said nothing, just hugged Theoron even tighter. But he was enjoying hugging her and didn’t mind.
“I know it is a lot to take in,” I said gently. “That is why I never told you, Mom.”
“I do not have to come to your home, Tina,” Danial said pointedly. “It means a lot that you would let my son come.”
“Come, please,” my mother said, touching Danial’s hand with hers. “I always wondered what my daughter saw in you, from what I knew of you, from what you let us see. I didn’t understand why she was with you or how she could trust you with Elle, after you hurt her that time—”
Danial flinched. She squeezed his shoulder.
“—but this....what you’ve done was hard, and you did it alone. I raised a child alone. I know how hard it is, especially when they are babies—”
“I had help, Tina,” Danial said graciously. “I was not alone.”
“A pair of hands is one thing, and it’s another to know all the responsibility for a life you helped create rests on your shoulders,” my mother shot back defiantly. “Every decision you make you hope to God is the right one, because the life you are trying so hard to protect and nurture is so fragile. You made sure he was taken care of, every minute of every day, and that means something to me, Danial. I misjudged you. I’m sorry for that.”
Danial said nothing for some moments. When he did speak, he was emotional. “You are as surprising to me as your daughter was, when she first accepted what I was,” Danial said, respect in his eyes. “I expected you to run screaming from me if you ever found out the truth.”
“I’d like to think I’m calmer than that,” my mother said, getting to her feet, still holding Theoron. “Besides, it’s not like you are really biting my daughter—”
My mother stopped abruptly, taking in Danial, who was giving her a small secretive smile, blinking his eyes at her a lot. I flushed scarlet, from my toes to my hair.
“You...you really...um—” my mom floundered again.
This time, my stepfather saved the day. “Look, whatever is going on here, the night’s not getting any younger. Let’s get ice cream, and we can talk about this at home.”
“Ice cream!” Theoron shouted.
* * * *
Over our creamy desserts, we ditched our serious discussion, instead talking of pleasantries, my stepfather working in how he would like to take Theoron fishing in the spring as he had taken Elle a few times last summer. “I don’t suppose you can go?” he said, glancing at Danial out of the corner of his eye.
“If you go at night, I will go with you,” Danial said, with an apologetic look. “But days are out, I’m afraid.”
“That’s fine,” my stepfather said. “You can still have a scotch or two with me, right?”
Danial reluctantly nodded. “As long as it’s just a taste.”
“Mom, Chris, you need to know something,” I said abruptly.
Everyone looked at me, including Danial.
“Danial told me what he was from the first. He never hid what he was from me. I chose to be with him, to have his child. It matters to me that you know that. He and I were together because I wanted to be with him, not because he seduced me or anything like that.” I forced a smile. “Those stories in the media are just stories.”
“We get it,” my stepfather said gruffly. “We didn’t think that anyway, but it’s good hearing you say that.”
From the tone of his voice, that was exactly what he had been thinking. Glad I’d spoken up, I got to my feet. “We should get home,” I said firmly, looking pointedly at Danial. “Theoron needs to get to bed.”
When we reached the parking lot, my mother dropped a bombshell. “Bring Theoron to our house next week. I want to see more of him, especially if he’s going to not be a child much longer.”
“Sarelle can bring him to you during the day—” Danial began.
“No, come at night,” she interrupted. “I would like to talk to you both about Theoron.”
“As you wish,” Danial said heavily, obviously worried about what my mother meant to say or ask.
“You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to,” my mother said quickly, seeing his expression. “I just want to make up for lost time.” She turned to me, tears on her face. “It hurts me to know you wouldn’t have said anything to me, if I and your stepfather hadn’t been here tonight, and run into you at the restaurant. You’d have let me go on thinking that you had no children. How could you have a child and not tell me?”
“I was going to tell you this year,” I said weakly, hugging her. “I was trying to find a way to do it, that didn’t ‘out’ Danial or make you feel bad for not knowing.”
“I understand why,” she said heavily, hugging me back. “I haven’t been welcoming to Danial since you started living with Theo. I was worried you might leave Theo and go back to him.”
Danial’s eyes sought mine, surprised.
“I was honest about Theo, mom. He knows I’m here with Danial.”
“I believe you,” my mother replied. “About everything, as fantastic as it sounds. It explains a lot, actually.” She drew back from me, and turned to Danial. “Do I have to ask for a hug?” she prompted.
Danial hugged her hard, drawing a little gasp from her. “Only this once, My Lady. Only this once.”
* * * *
Danial and I didn’t speak for most of the trip home. Finally, I said, “I’m sorry, for telling them your secret. I had no right. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine,” he replied. “Your parents handled it well, far better than I hoped they would. I’m grateful that they accept Theoron
. I’m astonished that they would accept me.”
“I told you my family is strange, Danial,” I said, giving him a smile. “We accept a lot of things normal people probably wouldn’t.”
Danial reached over and held my hand “Something I’m glad for, Love.”
* * * *
After we’d put Theoron to bed, Danial and I retired to his room, where he lit us a fire in the woodstove. “What do you want to do the rest of the night?” he said teasingly. “This was the extent of my planning.”
“I’m sure we can find something,” I said, drawing him down to the floor. He responded immediately to my touch, his hand reaching into my hair to pull my lips down on his. I kissed him gently, but he was already wanting more than gentle kissing. Eagerly, I lay back on the floor, letting him coax my body into readiness with his deft hands.
“You remember the first night we were like this?” I said, running my hands up his chest. “I was so nervous.”
“So was I,” he said huskily. “I wanted you, but I expected you to stop me. When you didn’t, I was worried that you wanted me just because you were hoping for a fantasy to come true.”
“I was,” I said, tugging him down to kiss me. “And you made it come true, Danial. Being with you in that dream, then later in the flesh was incredible.” I gave him a tender look. “But you were always more to me than just a fantasy,” I continued, stroking his cheek. “You told me at Christmas that I changed you, just by being myself. You’ve done the same to me, Love.”
Danial gave me an amused look. “Really? How so?”
“That day I held Theoron for the first time, when you hugged us both, I felt complete. I wanted to stay with you then, but I knew it would screw up everything again. I didn’t want to hurt you. It was the same later, in the fall, when we made love. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, that it had nothing to do with fighting The Lust.” I swallowed hard. “But I loved you, and I missed being with you like that—”
“Why are you telling me this, Sar?” Danial asked abruptly, drawing back. “What are you telling me you want from me, or asking me for, that you are bringing this up now?”
I wiped at my rapidly filling eyes. “Tell me how I go on,” I said brokenly. “How can I love you all equally? I feel so guilty—”
“Sar—”
“I’m in love with all three of you, and it terrifies me.”
“Don’t let it,” he said, moving to hug me. “We are going to be happy, Sar. Trust me.”
“I do,” I answered. “It’s not that. It’s that I’m scared Titus’s warning will come true, that I’ll lose myself in that bond I share with Theo.” I hugged him tightly. “I don’t want to lose us.”
“You won’t,” Danial said firmly. “We are Oathed, Love. My death is the only thing that could break that.”
Or mine. Chilled at the thought, I slipped my hands under his shirt. “Come here then and show me,” I said huskily.
Danial smiled down at me, then covered my lips with his.
* * * *
After, we lay together. I caressed him tenderly, his body that I knew better than anyone else’s. “It never gets old, being with you like this,” he whispered.
“I love you.”
“And I, you,” he said, giving me a long gentle kiss. “I want us to go away together.”
Shocked, I sat up and looked at him. “What? Where?”
“Just us, for a long weekend, maybe a week, if I can get Theo to agree,” Danial said, his tone implying he wasn’t sure how I was going to take it. “It’s been years since we traveled together, Sar.”
“We can’t,” I answered. “Dev and Theo won’t go for it.”
“We’ll schedule around them,” Danial said right back. “We never got a real honeymoon. Even that time we went to Switzerland, I was working. I was always working. The few times I wasn’t, you were either pregnant or unavailable to me.”
Whose fault was that? “Um, I’m pregnant now, remember?”
“Maybe,” he said. “It’s too soon to tell. In any case, you are no longer unavailable to me, something I’m poised to take advantage of.”
“We’d have to bring guards,” I said slowly. “We wouldn’t be alone.”
“We don’t have to, actually,” he said, giving me an uncharacteristic grin. “You can teleport, Sar. If we are in any danger, you can just warp us home.”
“Warp?” I said, laughing. “I can’t believe you said warp!”
His response was to tickle me. Soon I was shrieking, pleading for him to stop. He relented, and I lay gasping in his arms.
“Well, where did you want to go?” I said, glancing at him.
“Where had you dreamed of going, back when you first met me?” Danial answered. “Rome? Paris? Jamaica? Acapulco?”
I thought about it for a few moments. “I would want to go and stay in a little house somewhere,” I said finally. “Maybe near water. Somewhere where we could walk together, and not worry about a lot of people, maybe see some wildlife. I don’t really want to go to a big city, or be in crowds.” I looked at him hard. “Could you go somewhere where there wasn’t Internet service?” I said teasingly.
Danial grinned back. “My cell is satellite. I can go anywhere, except maybe underground. I’ll tell Terian our plans, and check in with him daily. He can also come and get us, if there is any trouble—”
Danial went on detailing out his plan. By the breadth of it, he had planned this as soon as he’d known I’d taken another Oath to him.
“—Theo can stay here with Elle and Theoron,” Danial continued. “It will be safer that way. Janice and Ivan can watch your dogs at your place; they are practically mated already—”
“Theo is going to be upset, no matter what,” I interrupted. “He doesn’t like me coming to you now.”
“He is lucky I don’t press my rights more,” Danial said, his eyes pricked with red tints. “Truly, I should get you at least two days a week, more if we went by the actual law—”
What about time to myself? Argh! “Enough,” I said sharply. “I don’t need another lecture about all the rights you have over me. It just reminds me of all the rights I’ve lost.”
“I did not mean it that way,” Danial said, giving me a pained look. “If you don’t wish to be with me, you have every right to refuse. I would never make you do something against your will.”
Yeah, you’re the only one. I didn’t reply, upset.
“Do you not want to go?” he said, crestfallen.
This wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t anyone’s, but it especially wasn’t his. “I’d like to go,” I said tiredly. “It sounds relaxing.”
“Let me check into places,” Danial mused. “There must be someplace that we can rent relatively close by, where we can be alone.”
His eagerness was hard to resist, hard enough I found my lips curving into a smile. “I can’t imagine you not working for days on end.”
Danial’s eyes slid away from mine at my words guiltily.
“Have you been working without me?” I accused. “You told me we were closed.”
“There is always someone who needs calling, some loose end—” Danial began.
I cut him off. “You said that you were shutting down the business for all of January, Danial. You have another two weeks, at least!”
“Yes, I’m overbooked for February. March isn’t much better. I’ve been trying to ease the workload by finishing more pressing cases, and the ones that only take a night’s work to complete. Terian’s been teleporting me, watching me when it’s overseas—”
“Theo said nothing to me—”
“I haven’t been taking him with me, I’ve been taking Brian.” Danial’s eyes caught mine meaningfully.
“You must know where his loyalties lie. Aren’t you upset with him?”
“No, I suspected right from the first. Devlin never lets anyone go who has been with him long, because by then they know the lay of Hayden. Even if he’d only worked outside the house, Brian shoul
d have had a scar or two from ending his contract with Dev early. What matters is he fanatically watches out for you.”
“Does he know you know?”
“No, but he suspects. He is afraid to broach the subject with me, afraid I’ll fire him.”
“Don’t do that. He’s a good man. I trust him.”
“I don’t plan to,” Danial soothed. “Now get on your clothes, Darling. Chuck just drove up with Annabelle Lee and Poe.”
Excited, I hurriedly dressed. “So we’re riding first?”
“Yes,” Danial nodded. “But, no, I haven’t forgotten the pizza. It will be here soon.” He offered me his hand. “Come.”
Happily, I took let him lead me outside, eager to hear the first welcoming neigh of a horse on the night breeze.
* * * *
Terian teleported Danial and I home late the next afternoon. I went about the house, greeting the pets and picking up, hoping the glow of contentment over me wasn’t too noticeable, especially as Danial had elected to touch base with Theo.
“Why can’t it wait?” I asked again, letting out Ghost and Darkness. “This isn’t the time for you to talk to Theo, Danial.”
Danial petted Cavity, who’d homed in on his lap and was already curled up, purring happily. “Maybe not, but I’m going to anyway.”
Theo walked in, Elle at his heels. “You’re home,” he said happily.
Elle went right for Danial. “Dad, Theo says I can come every weekend!” she said happily. “Is that right?”
“Yes,” he said. “Maybe we’ll go to the movies again next weekend, too.”
“Great!” she exclaimed, and then ran into her bedroom, to return with her bag.
“Ready to go?” Terian said from behind me, startling me.
“Yes,” Elle said. Taking his hand, they both disappeared.
“Why are you still here, Danial?” Theo said pointedly, folding his arms across his chest. “There’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow.”
“I’m waiting for Devlin to get here,” Danial replied. “I need to talk to you both.”
Theo’s eyes cut to me questioningly. I shrugged.
Devlin appeared with Terian, who let him go, and then disappeared again.
Point of No Return Page 17
