by Teal Ceagh
Blake nodded. “She wants to let go,” he said.
“Let her go then,” Diego told him. “You have to let go, Blake.”
Sera kiss his brow. “Let her go, Blake,” she whispered. She was crying.
With a long inhalation, Blake closed his eyes. “She’s gone.”
Sera threw her arms around him. So did Diego.
* * * * *
“Although the bond has not been formally sealed,” Seaveth said, “in many ways, it is probably already stronger than either of our other two trinities. You three have been extraordinarily tested and proven sound.” She paused to smile sadly.
Blake did not stir from his seat at the middle of the table, or look up from his gaze at the table top. Someone had found him a shirt and Seaveth had lent Sera another pair of jeans and a shirt. Diego had returned to all black. It suited his mood.
“The fact that the trinity has formed at all has thrown the Grimoré into deep fear and weakened them. That may be enough for us to win the victory we seek. Sealing the bond at this point may not be necessary. It’s been pointed out that it may, indeed, be a heartless demand.”
The occupants at the table murmured. All except Sera and Blake. Sera looked shell-shocked. Diego wanted to touch her hand but she was sitting too far away for him to reach. Fear was blooming in his chest.
Seaveth stood. “Would everyone but the trinities please leave the room?”
The senior representatives slowly filed from the room, leaving only Zack, Alexander, Wyatt, Seaveth, Mia, Sera and Blake at the big table. For the first time, Blake looked up. The look in his eyes was terrible. Diego gritted his jaw.
Seaveth was looking at them. “It is your choice, you three. I won’t lie and tell you you’re as free as birds, because I know the power of the bonding. But if you want to try to walk away and leave the bond unsealed, you can do that. You’re free to go. No one will stop you.”
Blake stood up. “Under the circumstances, I have to take the offer. I-I have a department to run. I’ll liaise with Mia as we discussed. But if you don’t mind, I’ll keep it via remote channels.” He swallowed and looked around the table and gave a vague nod.
Diego felt a hand on his shoulder, pressing down hard. “Stay silent, my friend,” Alexander whispered in his ear, in Spanish. “Keep it together.”
Sera stood up. Tears sparkled in her eyes as she looked at Diego. “I suppose that means I must find my own place here too.” She glanced at Mia. “I must call on your services, Shamira.”
“Yes, of course,” Mia said, standing and walking with the tall, slender woman to the door of the assembly room.
The pain in his chest was going to explode outward. Diego didn’t know what to do, what to say. How to deal with it.
Alexander was lifting him from his chair. No, it was Wyatt’s hands on him. Wyatt’s strength, bodily moving him from his chair. Manhandling him from the room. Out into one of the service corridors, Alexander bundling him along, whispering in Spanish. “Hold it together, my friend. I know your pride. A few seconds more. Just a few seconds more, is all. Take a deep breath.”
Then blessed darkness.
He couldn’t breathe but Alexander and Wyatt were bending him over, letting him clutch at his chest as he wanted to.
“Did you know?” Wyatt asked.
“I could see it in his eyes,” Alexander murmured. “We pushed him into this. Now he’s committed and it’s falling apart around him.” Alexander’s hands were on his arms, holding him up. “Diego, my friend, stand up.”
Diego forced himself up. Forced himself to breathe. “I’m an idiot.”
“No, you’re just human and you’ve just learned how to love again. And it comes with risks, that’s all.” He smiled in the dim light. “I never thought I’d see the day the great Diego would crash and burn but there you go.”
Diego took another breath, easier this time. “You’re enjoying this.”
“Immensely,” Alexander said instantly. “You gave me so much shit about my bonding, you surely can’t begrudge me a bit of mileage out of yours?”
Wyatt chuckled.
Diego sighed. “Fire away,” he said. “I deserve it.”
“Every single shot,” Alexander said. “Which is why we’re going to sneak you out the back entrance and take you back to your apartment and leave you there to brood. Alone.”
Diego looked up at him. “Why?”
“It’s called moping. A time-honored tradition for broken hearts. You can’t get drunk, so that’s the next best thing.”
* * * * *
Zachariah looked at Seaveth as she shuffled the papers on the table back together. “Are you crazy, Beth? Not seal the trinity? After waiting over a year for it to show up, I’d have thought you’d keep them locked down in that apartment until they were joined at the hip!”
She shook her head and smiled at him. “Sometimes, Zack, I think you’ve been a vampire too long.” She got up from the table.
“And to let two of ’em just waltz out into the streets!” He strode after her.
“It was a risk but a calculated one,” she admitted. “The Grimoré are in disarray after the formation of the trinity. The vampeen are falling back under the ranger sweeps. We haven’t seen any in Manhattan in the last seventy-two hours and the state area is showing subsidence too.”
He followed her down the corridor. “You’ve got a plan?” he asked.
“No,” she said airily.
* * * * *
Blake sat back in his chair, looking at the three piles of paperwork in the trays, blinking, realizing that he had zoned out yet again.
He had been back at work for three days and couldn’t seem to buckle down to it. Even knowing the reason behind the overload of work in the department these days didn’t help his concentration.
On the first day back he had done something he had never done before. He had looked up an address on the database for himself and found Diego Savage, in Soho. A legitimate address. A real identity.
“Son of a bitch,” he’d muttered.
Since then, the information had burned at the back of his mind.
And Sera’s eyes stayed in the front of his mind. He could feel her hand on his chest. When it rained later that day he found himself standing at the window, his hand on the glass, staring at it stupidly, remembering her whispered words and her hands on his body.
He hadn’t been able to get any serious work done for the rest of that day. His body had been too aroused, too tight with tension.
It was too bad he couldn’t look up Sera. They wouldn’t have an identity for her yet.
But then he realized what he was thinking and threw down his pen. He’d walked away from them both. They had caused the death of Emily. He couldn’t forgive them for that.
* * * * *
Sera felt a pat on her hand and blinked and looked up. Lindál lifted his brow. “Aren’t you supposed to cheer me up? You suck at it, by the way.” He shifted on the bed and winced.
She tried to smile. “Sorry. I’m distracted.”
“I noticed.” He lifted a brow. “Want to talk about it?”
“You’ll just get mad again.”
“Again?” He pursed his lips. “Oh. Diego. What’s he done now?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
Lindál frowned. “What does that mean? Aren’t you all happily bonded et cetera?”
“No.” She felt something hard and achy grab at her chest.
“No?” Lindál tried to sit up again and grunted, clutching at his stomach. “Fuck,” he muttered, sounding astonishingly human and pissed. “Zack!” he shouted. He looked at her. “Why not?” he demanded breathlessly.
“I walked away,” she said. “Seaveth gave us the choice.”
“You walked?” Lindál shouted. “Are you freaking mad? Zachariah, get in here!”
Zack appeared as if by magic and ducked under Lindál’s arm, as her brother tried to get up.
“No, you don’t,” Zack said, pushing h
im back on the bed.
“That’s not a good idea,” Sera tried to add, half rising from her chair.
“Then someone please explain to my stupid fucking sister in small words to get her ass back to Diego and Blake as soon as possible and finish the bonding!” Lindál roared.
Sera bit her lip, her breath ragged, as she stared at her brother, astonished. He was angry as she had never seen him before. She stared at his stormy blue eyes. “You don’t understand,” she whispered. “We killed Blake’s daughter. It was our fault, because of the bonding. He blames us.”
“Then find him and get on your knees and ask him to forgive you and do whatever you have to do to get him to take you back,” Lindál told her. “You can’t walk away from the bonding, Sera. It’ll drive you mad for a start and it’ll kill you in the end. That’s just the beginning and it’s just the superficial stuff.”
He had to stop and take a breath. Despite superb recovery powers, Lindál was still weak. He shook his head. “If you turn your back on the bonding, Sera, you’re turning your back on more happiness than you’ll ever know in any other way. So get your fucking ass out there and find them. Do it now. Don’t wait.”
She looked from Lindál to Zack, who stood with his hip resting against Lindál’s side. Seaveth had come at Lindál’s shouting and now stood at the door of the room and heard Lindál’s speech. She smiled at Sera. “I happen to have Diego’s address,” she said.
Chapter Seven
Diego would never have thought being respectable would be such a fucking life-saver. Having a job to go to every day gave him a routine. Something to do. A reason to keep moving—especially since the vampeen and the Grimoré had retreated beyond the state borders and were hovering there, not giving him some carcasses to carve up.
He’d even donned a suit, although he couldn’t quite bring himself to wear a tie. Mia had been overjoyed.
But the days had been black ones. Filled with meaningless trivia that he had processed and human protocol to perform. Alexander had steered him through most of it, with Mia gently nagging him for the rest but really…why bother?
At night, when the world slept, he could feel the absence of Sera’s long supple body against him and the ache became acute. Blake would have understood this feeling. But he wasn’t here, either.
Suddenly, the lack of a roommate that he had celebrated so recently was now a cruel joke. The empty apartment, so recently acquired, was hollow and impersonal.
If only he was human, so he could fill his days with the need to eat, drink, sleep and fill the boredom with the oblivion of booze. He considered his old bolt-hole, women, for a nanosecond. There was zero appeal anymore.
Instead, his body throbbed with memories and his mind ached. “Pandora’s box,” he whispered as he sat in the dark, wondering what he was going to do between now and the morning when he could go to work again and pretend to be human.
He was almost grateful when the door buzzer sounded, instead of pissed that someone had let the visitor into the foyer. This was supposed to be a secure building, for crissake. But fine. He pulled out one of his knives. He was just in the mood to carve up a body. Bring it on, bastardos.
He left the lights off and yanked the door right open, instead of just leaving it on the chain, and hauled them inside. He tossed the body against the opposite wall. It hit with a satisfying impact and he slammed the door shut. His night vision was perfect. They’d be blinded.
He pounced, almost happy. Keeping his knife hand free, he grabbed the body by the throat and shook it. Heavy. Male. Good. He could feel his incisors descending, his mouth filling with saliva, preparing for biting and tearing. He growled and threw the body across the room again. It dared intrude on him?
With three bounds, he was on the body again, before it could even begin to lift itself from the heap it had made at the foot of the wall where it had slithered when it landed. He grabbed the vulnerable throat again and slid it up the wall, keeping it pinned and helpless. He leaned in close, smelling the blood pumping in the artery and for a moment was even tempted to take the great bite. Serves the creature right.
“Go ahead, Diego. Do it,” Blake said tiredly. “Put me out of my misery.”
Diego let him go and staggered backward, his heart seizing. His back came up against the other wall and he could go no further. He stared at the man lying on the floor, unable to speak.
The air brushed his face as it moved near him and Sera appeared, standing within a few inches of Blake. She staggered, thrusting a foot out in front of her, because it was dark. But she was an elf and had superior sight. She looked around, taking in her surroundings and the impact of her appearance registered on Diego’s stunned mind. She had jumped blind. Called by Blake’s pain.
She leaned down to touch his shoulder, to murmur to him. Then she straightened, her eyes blazing and pointed at Diego. No, she was pointing a crossbow at him. At his chest.
At his heart.
“I will shoot, I swear,” she said. Her voice was shaking.
Diego moved toward her. “Do it,” he told her, knowing it was an echo of Blake’s words. “I wish it would solve my problems as easily as Blake’s. Go on, Sera. Do it.” He pressed the crossbow bolt against his chest, dead center. “You can’t miss. All you have to do is pull the trigger. Go ahead.”
Blake’s hand reached for her thigh. “I don’t want you to,” he said.
She let the crossbow drop. “All I could feel was Blake’s pain,” she whispered. “And your fury and despair.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “I couldn’t stay away.”
Diego threw the knife away. It stopped, quivering, point down in the floorboards. He gathered her in his arms and kissed her, pouring all the pent-up tensions of the last few days into the kiss. All the words he had not spoken, all the caresses he had wanted to give her, all the strokes, the moments. He passed them to her in one breath, as they sank down to the floor together.
Blake tried to sit up and Diego let Sera go with a groan. “Amigo, I was not myself. This is a secure building and you knock on my door…” He tried to help him sit up but Sera was there first.
“Let me,” she said. She rested her hand on Diego’s cheek. “It’s all right,” she said, with a reassuring smile.
“No, I’m fine,” Blake said. “Just winded. You think I didn’t know what I was risking, Diego?” He finally sat himself up against the wall and winced, his tawny eyes flaring with pain. “I know enough now not to step into a vampire’s lair uninvited. I knew what I was doing tonight.”
“You…wanted me to hurt you,” Diego said slowly.
Blake pushed his hand through his hair. “I think so, yes.” He let his hand drop. “Hurt, or worse.” His expression was miserable. “Truth is, Diego, I came here tonight because I just can’t stay away anymore. I didn’t know how to find Sera but I knew you did.” He sighed. “Sera and I walked away from you in that assembly hall and I saw your expression, Diego. I know what we did and for the last three days I’ve felt like I’ve done more damage to you than you ever handed to me through Emily’s death.”
Diego could feel the pressure building in his chest again and Alexander’s whispered words. “Breathe, Diego.” He tried. But it wasn’t working.
Blake caught at his arm. “You’re shaking. Jesus, Diego.”
“It’s okay. I’m just falling to pieces here. Pay no mind,” Diego said. He gave a short laugh. “Do you know what the last few days have been like for me without the two of you?”
Sera wrapped her arms around his waist. “Don’t,” she whispered, her tears flowing freely.
Blake caught Diego’s face in his hands. “We won’t do that to you again,” he said. “Ever.” And he kissed him, his lips firm and hard and reassuring.
Sera’s hands were on his face, as Blake let him go. Her lips pressed against his, the honeyed sweetness he had been dreaming about for three days. Diego groaned and kissed her again, tasting her tears. But he needed more.
Sera turned to Blake
. “We hurt you,” she whispered, resting her hand on his chest, and bowing her head. “Can you forgive us? Forgive me?”
Blake lifted her face in his hands. “You jumped here blind. You could have slammed into a wall, landed in concrete or something. That was stupid, Sera, how could you?”
“You were in pain,” she said. “I had to come.”
“But that’s going to happen sometimes. You can’t just launch yourself into the middle of whatever I’m doing because I happen to be bleeding, Sera! I’m supposed to be the hunter! I’m going to get hurt! If you arrive just when I’m facing off vampeen and Grimoré, you’ll…distract me.”
“All elves are trained fighters, Blake,” Diego said softly. “Even the healers. Sera’s crossbow isn’t for show.”
“It’s Lindál’s,” she confessed. “I’ll have to sneak it back before he misses it. But I taught him how to use one.”
Blake rested his head against Sera’s. “I love you both. I’ll die if either of you get hurt. I look at the pain Zack and Beth are going through, and couple it to Emily’s death and what I feel for you and it terrifies me.”
Diego gripped his wrist. “Then we need to work together to make ourselves strong. To be the best. To defeat the Grimoré once and for all.”
Sera gave a small sigh. She kissed Blake lightly and brushed her fingertips over Diego’s cheek. “I do love you both, but if you don’t hurry up and fuck me, I swear I’m going to go find myself a rutty human who can do the job.”
Diego grinned. “Will you listen to the delicate elf princess?”
Blake eased himself up off the floor, and helped Sera to her feet. “I don’t suppose you have a bed in this lair, Diego?”
“Of course I do,” Diego said stiffly. “All self-respecting vampires passing as humans do these days.”
Blake looked around the room, scanning every corner. “I can see everything,” he said. “Colors. Details.”
Sera shrugged. “So can I.”
Diego wrapped his arms around her, unable to help himself. “You can because you’re an elf. I can because I’m a vampire. Blake shouldn’t be able to because it’s dark in here.”
