His body went rigid. He leaned back to look me in the eye. “About what?”
“I helped Terian escape. I gave him some meat and told him to get gone. He took my SUV. He promised to stay away and to get the car back when he could. I haven’t heard from him since.”
The silence stretched between us. I felt worse and worse by the moment.
Finally, he said, “Is that everything, Sarelle?”
“Yes. Danial—”
“Stop,” he said, putting his palm up. “I’ve known since it happened.”
Chapter Fourteen
I was both relieved he knew and apprehensive about what that meant for us. “How did you know?”
“Theo.”
That explained Theo’s crappy attitude last night. It hadn’t all been nerves about party security.
“Sarelle, werefoxes are animals, and like animals, they don’t rely on their eyes to track someone; they rely on their noses. Shoving dirt around didn’t cover up your trail. Theo could tell that you were with Terian when he got up and walked to the garage for the car. He also saw you there. My people were at the end of the driveway from the moment I arrived.”
“Then why didn’t they shoot him when he was staking you?”
“I gave them instructions not to interfere. That was my fight. If I were to fall, they were to kill Terian and make sure you were extracted.”
“So you didn’t come alone. And Theo wasn’t with Alexa.”
“I wasn’t going to risk your wellbeing on the word of a half-demon, even one I calculated wouldn’t be a problem.”
“You miscalculated that.”
He watched me with a cold expression, his eyes faintly red. “Perhaps honesty is just as unfamiliar to you as nobility is.”
I’d been trying to be honest and now we were fighting. “I’m sorry about Terian. I wasn’t about to let him kill you, but I couldn’t let him get killed for what Alexa did.”
“Theo told me your reasons for helping him, but they don’t matter.”
He suddenly grabbed me by my wrists and yanked me to him. He squeezed tightly.
“Ouch!”
His eyes were burning pools of black where red flames danced. “You are NEVER to do anything like that again. You are not to keep something like that from me! Terian could have killed you out there. I’m not sure why he didn’t—”
“He wouldn’t.”
“Theo saw you come out of the house after helping me inside. He called me when he heard Terian speak. I told him to interfere only if it looked like you were in danger, that you’d probably gone back to make sure that evil thing was dead—”
“He isn’t evil.”
“Really? He’s a half-breed demon, not an angel. What if he reconsiders what you did to save me and comes back while you’re alone? Or when you’re out walking? He acts on impulse, before he thinks of the consequences.”
“So did I the night I saved you.”
He bared one fang in a sneer. “Would you rather I hadn’t come to save you?” His tone sent a trickle of cold water down my body. He was scarier than Devlin, scarier than Terian’s evil tendrils. My sense of danger kicked in as high as it could. Danial controlled himself on the surface, but inside...he was angry enough to kill.
“Answer me, Sar. I thought you needed me that night. I was ready to do whatever I had to in order to save you. Instead, I find out you had your own plan to save the life of a thing that just tried to kill me.”
“Why the hell didn’t you say something that night? Or the day after?”
“I wanted to see if you would tell me yourself.” He loosened his grip on me. “And you did, though you took your time.”
“I did what I thought was right. But I did keep it from you, and that wasn’t right. I’m sorry. I should have told you the truth.”
“I should be the one who apologizes,” he said with a sigh, releasing my wrists. “I promised myself I wouldn’t lose my temper or scare you if you admitted what you’d done. I’m sorry. My anger comes from my fear of losing you.”
“I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t think of a way without you feeling exactly the way you do. I need you to understand that my helping Terian wasn’t about you. It had nothing to do with us. I felt it was the right thing to do. I didn’t do it to hurt you. If I thought saving him would hurt you, or that he was a threat to you, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“What matters is that you told me the truth. You saved me from him, both before shooting him and after. I—”
“Don’t act like a martyr. I’m not the only one who kept someone in the dark.”
“I said I was sorry for that already.”
I dropped the steely tone. “I understand you grew up in a time when women didn’t have any rights, where you might have made all the decisions without telling your lover anything, but don’t try that with me. It’s not going to fly.”
“No secrets on either side. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
He held out his hand to me. I took it, and he held me close. We lay down on the bed, where he held me, saying nothing. Then he broke the silence. “You should know that it matters a great deal what you said right before you shot him. Even though I was hurt, I was coherent enough to remember those words.”
I paused in mid-breath. I waited for him to tip my chin up to look me in the eyes, but he was as hesitant as I was. Neither of us moved.
“Are you in love with me?” he finally asked.
I held him tighter. “Yes. The more time I spend with you, the more I’m falling in love.”
He moved back so he could look at me. “Are you afraid to ask the same of me? Even when my answer is obvious from my willingness to ask that question?”
“Are you falling in love with me, Danial?”
“Yes,” he said tenderly. “It was infatuation at first, but I admire your strength and courage under fire. Not many women could have done what you have in the last few days.” He kissed my forehead. “Get some rest. Tomorrow will be a better day for us.”
* * * *
We awakened well after dusk. I felt much better after getting some sleep, especially when I woke in Danial’s arms.
When he took my arm to help me get out of bed, I winced. My wrists revealed slight bruises where Danial had gripped them. They were much lighter than the ones I’d had when he’d first drank my blood, but these hadn’t been an accident. And that both scared me and pissed me off. I showed him my wrists so he could see what he’d done.
“Did you mean to do this?”
“I’m sorry, Sarelle,” he said remorsefully. “There’s no excuse. But believe me, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“If I ask you to let go and you don’t, that means you’re hurting me.”
“It won’t happen again, I assure you,” he said quietly. “A man doesn’t hurt the woman he cares for, for any reason.”
We left the bedroom somberly. He switched on the overhead lights, and I finally saw the great room. The walls were a light gray, extending up to a high white ceiling. Two dormers in the outside wall faced the road. They were too high to see out, but I could see the light of the porch to the side of one. There were a lot of windows in the other walls, more than I’d expected from a man who should hate the sun.
I cut my eyes to Danial. “Shouldn’t you be igniting?”
“Special glass,” he said with a smirk. “Sunlight doesn’t penetrate it. And the trees close to the house keep it shady.”
A plush tan sectional dominated the room. Danial had gone overboard with seven extra sections. It looked extremely comfortable and inviting. There were a few matching chairs and floor lamps illuminating the edges of the room. Bookshelves along the walls were filled to overflowing. Checking titles, I saw some poetry and thick specialized astronomy books. Otherwise, most of the books had been published in the last twenty years, both fiction and non-fiction paperbacks, not leather-bound first editions or hardbacks.
“Surprised that I read novels?” Danial asked. �
��Or that I study the stars?”
“No, I know you’re intelligent. But I thought you’d have...older books.”
He burst out laughing. When he was done, he smiled the first true smile I’d seen in a while, one without sarcasm or double meaning. “Books are a good way to understand the current times. TV is also useful, but it’s still new to me. It doesn’t substitute for what I feel when I read.”
He moved to the wall and selected a book from an upper shelf. “I like mysteries.” He handed it to me Seven. I’d seen a Brad Pitt movie of the same name, but reading the back cover, I decided it wasn’t the same. I handed it back to him, and he handed me another, this one called Dog is my Copilot.
“I enjoy true stories, too. I just finished this one.”
“I read this. But you don’t have any dogs.”
“I got it when I met you. I’ve never had dogs, at least not the same way you do. Dogs were for herding sheep or hunting. They were rarely allowed indoors. I’ve had cats before, but…not for some time.”
There was something he wasn’t telling me, but I decided to leave it alone. It sounded like a painful memory. He could gloss it over if he wanted to.
“I like Ghost and Darkness. How long have you had them?”
“About three years. They’re like my family—” Speaking of which, I looked around for them, suddenly panicked. With a quick look at Danial, I walked to the entryway to find empty dog beds.
“They’re likely outside with Aran or one of the other foxes.”
I opened the door and stepped out. “Ghost! Darkness!” When there was no answering bark, I called again.
“They’re coming,” Danial said.
A moment later, I heard a far-off bark. I called again, and Ghost burst into the yard, followed by Darkness. They raced up to the steps, panting. A small form came running after them, panting hard. It was a fox. It came to the bottom porch steps and bared its teeth to grin at us. Then it took off, racing around the back of the house.
“Who was that? Can you tell?”
“Aran,” he said with a wink. “He doesn’t like to change in front of anyone. He’ll be back when he gets some clothes on.”
I was glad he hadn’t changed in front of us. Danial asked me if I was hungry.
“Yes. But I didn’t see any kitchen here.”
“It’s off the dining room.” He gestured to a door I’d thought was a closet.
I went through it and walked into a small but cozy kitchen. It was yellow with white curtains. Danial watched me as I looked into cabinets and through shelves and checked the refrigerator. I left that for last, unsure what I’d find, wanting to prepare myself. It’s one thing to know your lover needs blood to live, but something else to see bags or bottles of it in the refrigerator.
There were only the normal things you’d expect to find in a fridge: milk, eggs, bread, butter, something called polenta, and meat. A lot of meat, actually. An entire ten-pound brisket, whole chickens, black Angus burgers, and four—count ’em four—three-pound packages of bacon. There was more red meat in the freezer, primarily steaks, but also thick-cut bacon. I was about to make a crack over how all that red meat was a healthy diet when I realized a werefox probably needed it.
“This is for your werefoxes?”
“Yes. They like a lot of protein.”
“Do they just come in here after their shift to eat? Do they live with you?”
“They have their living quarters elsewhere on the property.” He walked back towards the great room, and I followed. “Theo stays over when we’re brainstorming a hard case. The room right above mine can be a guestroom when needed. Mostly its just storage.” He gestured to a staircase extending up the wall to the second level. “The other room above the dining room is my office. Would you like to see?”
“Sure.”
The guestroom at the top was also gray, with a full-size bed in one corner and a chair in the other. Danial had spoken of storage, but there were no boxes. Then I noticed a few gray plastic containers against one wall. They blended in so well I hadn’t seen them at first glance.
“What’s in them?”
“They’re what are left of my former lives,” he said with a touch of sadness.
“Mementos?” I asked delicately.
“Photos and souvenirs of things I saw and did. Memories of people I knew and cared for, long gone.”
It struck me with all the strength and sharpness of a slap across the face. Danial would always remain as he was. He wouldn’t age but I would. I would grow older and eventually die. Perhaps he would put my sea green dress in one of those boxes someday, to take out and remember me on occasion. Perhaps my necklace would go in there, too. He could take it out and remember how it had set off my hair. I wouldn’t need it. I’d be…
He grabbed my hand, and pulled me close to him. “Sar, don’t.”
I kept looking at those boxes, so innocent and common, the kind many people had for storage. He took my face in his hands and turned my head to look into his eyes. My eyes gravitated back to those boxes.
“Look at me,” he said. He turned so his body was in my line of sight, blocking my view of the boxes.
I looked into his eyes. “I am looking at you.”
“You’re here with me now. We’re together. That’s all that matters.” He kissed me, but I was unresponsive, and he broke it off. He led me to his office. Once I was inside, he closed the door.
I mentally shook myself and looked around. Everything was state of the art. There were two computer stations and two phones. Both desks were piled with folders, papers, pens, and all sorts of Post-It notes. The voice mail lights on both phones were lit.
I found my voice, but it was a bit creaky. “Danial.”
“Yes?”
He’d invited me to stay for a few days, but I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to amuse myself for some of it. Being the CEO of his own company, he would at least need to be on call. “Should I let you get to work?”
“I’ll need about an hour later to work on some pressing matters. Theo will be over then.” He led me to the door. “But first, we should go downstairs and get you something to eat.”
He led me out of the office and down the stairs. I purposely didn’t look in the direction of the boxes, but I felt them there all the same.
“Hello, Danial, Sarelle,” Aran said, not smiling.
“Aran,” Danial said cordially.
“Did you have a good walk?” I asked, not knowing how else to phrase it.
“We were hunting mice,” Aran said, and then gave a slight smile. “They’re better than I am, to tell the truth.”
I thought about asking him if he’d caught any, but then I’d have to assume he ate them. Ew. “Thanks for watching them.”
“We went for a long run.”
It must have been a marathon. Both dogs were on their beds, zonked out.
Theo strode in through the front door, slamming it behind him with a bang. He got right to business. “Everything’s fine. There are no emergencies so far tonight, but—”
“What about Garrett? Were there any problems?” Danial asked tersely.
“Devlin’s people said they would take care of it. They took the body when they left.”
“That works out well,” he said evenly, but he didn’t smiling. Neither did Theo.
“What is it?” Aran asked, looking from Theo to Danial. I mimicked him.
“They also took Neoline,” Theo said. “Devlin claimed her, and she agreed to go.”
I remembered the woman in buckskins. For as much as Devlin was an asshole, maybe he would treat her better. That was a big maybe.
“He’ll give her a quick death or transport back to her family, once she gives him what he wants,” Danial said. “She’ll likely choose death. You know that, Theo. You saw the ghost she’s become.”
Theo turned on me. “Curious how she got that way, Sarelle? Neoline’s family warned her to stay away from Garrett, that he had a reputation for cruelty, that
she shouldn’t trust him. But Neoline promised herself to him and he made her his slave. He didn’t even give her a collar, just tied her hands and dragged her around by that leash.”
“If you want to say something, just spit it out.”
“It’s okay, Theo,” Danial said, putting a hand on Theo’s shoulder. “She told me about Terian.”
“She needs to hear this.” Theo turned to face me, still annoyed. “Terian isn’t innocent like you think he is. He killed his sister-in-law yesterday, although he covered it up nicely. Another heart attack.”
“I’m not surprised. He’s capable of it. He thought she’d set him up.”
“Yes, he is capable of it. Years ago, he murdered his brother’s ex-girlfriend back when they lived together. Terian moved out after that and got his own place. Others connected to him died when he opened that online shop in the late nineties. They all can’t be accidents.”
“Then why mention them?”
“Because you need to remember that you’re dealing with a being you can’t treat like a bird with a broken wing. Sure, he’s half-human, but that’s not the stronger half. He can fight the demon side of him all he wants, but he will never have enough control over himself to rein it to his will.”
Remembering Terian’s outbursts and how he wrecked my door, I conceded that Theo was probably right. I was weary of the argument. “You can relax,” I said tiredly. “I’m not going to help him again, or see him. He can keep the car.”
“He’s returned your car,” Theo said. “Cia said he left it in your garage and walked off down the road.”
Stupid Terian. So much for staying away and keeping a low profile. “Then it’s finished.”
“Maybe. But—”
“No maybes. It’s done. You can stay here and talk to Danial about Terian. I’m getting something to eat.” I looked over to Danial. “Where’s the nearest town?”
“What do you need? There’s food in the kitchen.”
“What I need,” I said, standing up to look at them with my hands on my hips, “is some comfort food. I need pizza. I’m not eating meat or making myself breakfast this late at night. So hand me the keys and clear the way to the door.”
Promise Me Page 19
