Swathed in a furlined parka, Leigh gave her mate a push, and another one until he had little choice but to look at her.
“They’re back and safe,” she said. “They’ll tell us what’s happened in good time. You know they didn’t go just to annoy you.”
“I don’t know why they went,” Niles said. “That’s the point.”
“I’ll make sure you understand what’s at stake here,” Sean said. “When I’m ready. Take the coat, Elin.” He started to undo the buttons.
Elin stayed his hand. “I don’t think that’s a good idea but we should get out of this deathly cold before we freeze—or I do.”
The completely unexpected smile on Saul’s elegant face made Sean laugh.
“What’s funny about any of this?” Niles said. “Who are these people?”
He meant Cassie and David, whom Saul introduced while Leigh led the way toward the house just above the beach where she and Niles lived. “Come on,” she called. “It’s too cold out here. They’ll all get sick. They look as if they’re fading away.”
They followed her. Sean wanted to go to his own place but knew better than to question Leigh when she was in take-control mode.
“The One—he’s—”
“I know who he is,” Niles cut Sean off. “Sally told me.”
Sean was losing patience with Niles’s attitude. He wasn’t sure who the man was himself so Niles surely didn’t know. “He’s a living vampire,” Sean said. “He eats human organs. That’s why he had these folks manacled to a wall.”
“He was going to eat them, Niles,” Leigh said, her face horrified as she glanced back. “If Sean and Saul hadn’t gone, these people might be dead by now.”
“And if Sean hadn’t gotten mixed up with someone who has upset the delicate order we’ve managed to make here, we wouldn’t be involved in any of this.”
“Goddammit,” Sean said, catching up with Niles. “You took Leigh as a mate because you want your humanity back and she can help. But you would have wanted her anyway. The fact that she’s a Deseran—which means human as far as I’m concerned—and has blood that blends with yours and gives us hope of a living child at last is a good thing. I don’t even want to talk about what would happen with Elin and me. Tarhazian stole her as a baby. She doesn’t know who or what she really is and neither do I, but the decision about what we do is ours to make.”
“This can wait,” Niles said sharply. “I don’t want to talk out here.”
“Really? It wasn’t bothering you when you were doing the talking.”
Niles spun around and pulled Sean to a stop. “You got involved with this woman against my wishes. I told you her fae connections could bring us trouble.”
“We’re used to trouble,” Sean said.
“We were starting to settle down,” Niles responded. “Sure we had problems, but we didn’t have a damn living vampire on our hands. I don’t know exactly how, but she brought this on us and we don’t want it—particularly now. That means…you know what it means. The Fae Queen would sell her soul to get more power, if she had a soul.”
“What do you mean, I know what that means?” Sean said and heard his voice shake with frustration. “Without Elin, the rest of us wouldn’t have come back safely from The Island. She has not passed on any information, dammit.”
“I didn’t,” Elin said suddenly and loudly through chattering teeth. “I haven’t and I never would. I would die rather than tell Tarhazian anything about any of you.”
Leigh kept walking and the two they had rescued went with her. Elin stayed beside Sean.
“This monster you’ve found is hugely powerful, am I right?” Niles said.
“Yes,” Sean said. “But he’s already been among us. I think he’s been here for some time.”
“On Whidbey?” Niles’s brow furrowed.
“Sometimes.” How much could he say without jeopardizing his own credibility? “On The Island, that’s what it’s called, I saw someone I knew before. I didn’t even realize who he was at first.”
“Who?” Niles asked, but worry etched the lines of his face. “Not the man you were—”
“I think so,” Sean said, cutting Niles off. He didn’t want to hear himself referred to as running away.
“That would mean a rogue werehound could morph into a live vampire. I hope you were wrong.”
“So do I.” Sean decided not to mention that The One seemed to shift from himself into Aldo or that Aldo had supposedly been absorbed into the living vampire.
“The plan is for the living vampire to gain control of the paranormal world here and who knows where else, and as much of the human world as he thinks he needs?” Niles said.
“I think so.”
“Which means he needs inside information about the structure of our worlds, lots of information, and Tarhazian will be only too happy to help him out if she thinks she can share the spoils.”
“He won’t share anything,” Sean said. He saw how Elin shivered and grabbed her back into his arms.
“She’s powerful enough to make things uncomfortable for him if he breaks promises to her. He has to know that. There would be a compromise between the two of them and we would suffer. What about Brande’s pack? They’ve gone dark. We don’t even think they had anything to do with what happened to Molly.”
Sean drew a deep breath. He indicated Cassie and David. “From what those two said, it was wolf men who took The One away after he escaped from us. That had to be Brande’s pack.”
“Perfect.” Niles bared his teeth and his hot-blue eyes narrowed. “So we are a tiny army against the battalions of the paranormal world. We don’t know what allies we have, but even if there are some, they may get the hell out of this mess.”
Elin twisted in Sean’s arms. “He won’t believe me, Sean. What can I do to help?”
“I think you know,” was all Niles would say.
chapter TWENTY-TWO
Sean and Leigh passed in her kitchen doorway. He started to speak but she looked away and pushed a box into his hand. Under her other arm she carried Elin’s Pokey, who had been in a huff since their return.
Then Leigh whispered so that he had to strain to hear, “Just do what you have to do. Wait half an hour or so. Two Chimneys will be unlocked.” He carried on into the hallway, sidestepped into the mudroom, and closed the door gently behind him.
There was no reason to turn on a light. Sean could see perfectly clearly in the dark and he examined what Leigh had given him. Not a plain box but a leather one shaped like a miniature trunk firmly closed with a strong gold hasp.
He knew what he held.
Beneath the lid in a cradle of velvet hollowed out to a perfect fit were the parts of the die and the seal used by the werehounds to seal a male to a female as permanent mates. This seal, when given by a woman to a man and a man to a woman, formed an indelible mark in their flesh, an unbreakable bond between them.
Even death did not break the seal.
Sean rested his back against the door and closed his eyes. Leigh had taken a bold step in getting and giving him the box. Her message was clear: Seal with Elin and prove to Niles that she was one of them. He closed the box without looking and held it in one fist. There was more to it than that. He didn’t give a damn what Niles did or didn’t think, did or didn’t want for Sean and Elin.
This was their life.
He had come to respect Leigh’s wisdom but this wasn’t close to being as simple as she thought. If Elin agreed to be his sealed mate, she must fully understand what that meant, including the bonds that would be between them whether they were together or apart. She had to know everything about him including the ties that bound the hounds together and their ultimate goal to get closer to their human roots again.
But if she agreed after that, he would have the proof that she put him before all else.
The door handle moved behind his back. Sean wasn’t ready to face anyone. He let whoever it was push. They would assume the door was stuck—or lock
ed.
Moonlight penetrated the small window in the door to the outside, shimmered over icy crystals on the pane. All he could see clearly in his mind was Elin. He was convinced she was beautiful inside and out.
Leigh would have returned to the others by now. All the hounds were there, gathered close together at the front of the house, discussing strategy. They accepted Sean’s temporary leadership without question.
He heard the scrape of something pulled over frozen snow outside. The shadow of someone’s head appeared at the window, hands cupped to frame a face, eyes staring hard to see if there was someone inside.
Sean reached back and very deliberately, very quietly locked the door. There could be no mistaking Elin’s black hair shimmering around her head and shoulders, or her small, pointed face.
So perhaps his hand was being forced and he must make a decision.
He let in a stream of icy air and swept Elin inside. He bent and brought in the box she had stood on inside in case it raised anyone’s curiosity.
Holding her at his side, he closed and locked that door, too. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he whispered hoarsely, taking her in from head to foot. “At least you’ve got warm clothes. Are those Leigh’s?”
“Sally sent for them because Leigh’s wouldn’t quite fit.”
“Where do the others think you are?”
“Lying down trying to sleep,” she said sheepishly. “Leigh told them you’d gone to check on Two Chimneys. She knows you’re here. Sally does, too.”
“A setup,” he said, shaking his head. She resembled a balloon person, silvery parka and snow pants, reinforced ski gloves, puffy knee-high snow boots. “You, Leigh, and Sally hatched this up. How much did you talk about it? What did either of them tell you?”
“Sally left—well, she did make a suggestion. But Leigh told me to come and find you as soon as the others thought I was really asleep. She talked about a safe room somewhere but then changed her mind. She said it could be problematic.”
“Yeah,” Sean said. “Particularly if we set off alarms. I haven’t practiced turning them off fast. I should do that in case I ever need to know. There’s a heavily fortified safe room behind the house, built into the cliffs. It’s for emergencies.” And other things, like a place to go when a hound wanted complete privacy with his mate.
“Sean, I would never do anything to hurt you.” Elin’s voice broke.
“I know.” She struck him to the heart. He believed her absolutely but the truth was that Elin couldn’t be certain what influence Tarhazian, the wolves, and other malevolent forces could exert through her.
He bent to kiss her, softly on the lips. Driving his fingers into her hair, he nuzzled her face and she kissed him back feverishly. “We have to talk,” he said. “But we have to be careful we aren’t overheard.”
“Only Leigh knows we’re here,” Elin pointed out. “And probably Sally. We’d hear if there was someone coming.”
He hoped she was right.
“The One. The guy in the crater cavern on The Island, I know now that I met him before—more than once.”
She sat on the floor in a corner by the outer door and pulled him down beside her. “Hold me,” she said. “Don’t let me go.”
He did as she asked. “Did you understand what I just told you?”
“I wish I didn’t,” Elin told him. “I’m afraid to know about it.”
“You don’t have a choice unless you want to leave me.”
“Tell me,” she said, looking up at him.
“I was human, you realize that?”
“Yes, of course, but I don’t understand it all.”
“It was a long time ago, in a little room behind a saloon in Creed, Colorado.” He considered his next words. Either he trusted her absolutely or he gave this up. “My name was Jacob O’Cleary and I was barely twenty-two. My dad had been a sawbones and I learned a lot at his elbow—I had to. This man, Aldo is the only name I knew him by, he got badly wounded in a fight and I put him back together as best I could. It wasn’t until his teeth were ripping through my coat and shirt and I was wrestling with a monstrous creature covered in thick fur that I knew my life was fading away.
“Aldo was a werehound and he turned me.”
“After you helped him? After you saved his life?”
“He’s a monster,” Sean said. “He drew strength from me and left me close to death. I didn’t recover for weeks and then I couldn’t go back to my old life so I changed my name and struck out on my own. I didn’t see Aldo again until five years ago in San Francisco. You already know this was the man who wanted to take me as his slave—and he got me accused of murder so I had to flee. Now I think he’s closing in on me again, only he wants much more than me. He changed into something much more complex and he craves immense power in the paranormal world and he doesn’t care what he does to get it.”
“But—”
“Let me get through this. The One says he has absorbed Aldo, but I believe Aldo is the stronger and has chosen to meld into The One’s form. They are an unholy duo in one body. He won’t be happy with only the paranormal world scraping at his feet. He’s looking at the human world and figuring he can get his fingers into that, too. It’s going to be a deadly fight, unless we can get rid of him, or even get him on the run for long enough so that we can be more prepared.
“What we need are allies. We don’t know whom we can count on. If we can give him more time, he’ll make more enemies and we should be able to pick them up—but I’m not a politician so I can only go on what seems logical.”
Elin’s violet eyes caught the crystalline light. She lowered her lashes quickly but not before Sean saw tears hanging there. “Why won’t Niles let go of this theory he has about me?” she said, so quietly Sean had to bend over her to hear.
“It’s not that,” he said, rubbing his jaw over her brow. “Niles will never be able to stop feeling responsible for the Team. He doubts—”
“He’s suspicious of me,” Elin cut in. “I don’t even blame him, but I also don’t know what I can do to change his mind. If you and I are together, it could be the end of me unless I spy for Tarhazian—maybe the end of both of us. And she knows we’re together now, I’m sure of it. She has already interfered once when we were in the mountain. I can’t think of any other reason why I would slip out of invisibility.
“But I did feel some hope. It took a long time for my body to be stable and I think that’s because she’s finally wearing out her hold over me. I can see now that she always felt the two of us were in competition, even though it seems ridiculous, but maybe she’s spent so much energy controlling me she’s wearing it out. We have to hope she can’t send us into that living death she threatened.”
He gathered her into his arms. “Hush. I won’t allow anything like that to happen to you.”
“What do you know about magic? What do I know? Niles doesn’t realize that I have been kept from learning the ways of the fae. Sally is trying to help me, but she must be careful, too.”
Sean had put the box on the floor beside him. He knew what Leigh wanted him to do and what he wanted himself, but how could he figure out if Elin was ready?
“I will never hurt you,” Elin said. “I’ll settle for only being able to know how you are if that’s all I can have. I’ll…I’ll leave you before I’ll hurt you and the rest of the Team.”
This wasn’t the first time he’d considered leaving Whidbey and taking Elin with him. First he had to try and protect her—them—right here.
“Will you come up to Two Chimneys Cottage with me?” he asked her.
She looked puzzled. “Why?”
“Because I want to be with you without any chance of being interrupted. We have to make decisions and they aren’t simple.”
Elin scrambled to her feet. “We’ll have to be quiet leaving. You need warm clothes.”
“I’ve got a sweat jacket on. Werehounds don’t feel the cold, remember?”
She sighed
. “I miss being like that.”
“I’ll lead the way because I know it better than you do. Be careful not to slip. The door will be unlocked.”
“How do you know?” She sounded bewildered.
“I was told it would be.”
“By Leigh?”
“Of course. The steps will be icy. Don’t say anything else until we’re up on the bluff.”
As soon as Elin turned to the door, Sean stuffed the little box in a pocket.
Once outside they held hands. Underfoot the crunch of the crisp snow seemed as loud as gunshots. They crept from the mudroom door to the corner of the house, across a terrace dotted with pots where the naked skeletons of plants cast ragged black shadows on the snow—to the steps leading up to the bluff in front of Two Chimneys Cottage.
Sean put Elin in front of him and made sure she used her hands as well as her feet to climb the treacherous, sheer face. Time and again one of them stumbled or slipped, scarcely breathing for fear of making too much noise.
They made it and at the top they stood hand in hand again before striking out for the cottage. Sean smelled wood smoke before he saw it unfurling faintly against the pewter sky.
“There’s a fire alight,” Elin whispered. “Leigh shouldn’t do so much. You think she did it? Light a fire?”
He grinned in the darkness. “Leigh will do as she likes.”
The front door opened as promised. Lamps had been turned on and the living room glowed. Only one of the fires had been lighted but warmth spread to meet them.
“Should we put off the lights?” Elin whispered.
“You can’t see the cottage from Niles and Leigh’s house,” he told her. “You don’t need to whisper anymore either.”
She grinned and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Don’t forget we have to get back before they miss us.”
“This doesn’t have to take long,” he said, looking over her head and deep into the flames. “This time.”
chapter TWENTY-THREE
Elin’s stomach flipped.
Darkness Bred (Chimney Rock) Page 17
