Taran closed the door behind them and took a moment to marvel at the difference a night had made in Skye. She was speaking and acting playfully. The smiles that came to her lips were genuine and came easily. He watched as she stretched and looked out the window, completely unconcerned with the fact that she was nude. It seemed that she was finally coming out of her shell, confident in her safety and completely at ease in her own skin. Peaceful looked incredibly beautiful on her, he noted.
Once he filled the bath, he snuck up behind her and snatched her up off her feet. While she squealed in surprise and laughed, he carried her to the tub. The two of them sank down into the hot water and she sighed blissfully as she lay with her back against his chest.
Bathing was infinitely more entertaining when assisted by Taran, she decided. He kissed each of her fingertips and toes as if giving them the seal of approval once he finished washing them. Returning the favor was equally thrilling. She had never tasted water so sweet as the droplets she lapped from his chest. He shampooed her hair, which proved to be a nearly orgasmic experience. As he rinsed the suds from her long locks, she smiled up at him and he leaned down to kiss her lips.
They were now squeaky-clean and sitting facing one another, her legs wrapped around his hips.
“Ya seem to be in better spirits today, wee one,” he commented before pulling her closer to him and kissing the tip of her nose.
“I’m where I’m supposed to be,” she whispered, her heart swelling at how certain she was of those words. It amazed her how comfortable she was with this situation – being here with this man, nude in a tub as he fawned over her. Just a week prior, she would have sworn it impossible to feel this way.
“No,” he said with a sly smile, repositioning her so that his hardness could settle between her thighs. “Now you’re where you’re s’posed to be,” he corrected.
She laughed as she draped her arms around his shoulders.
“Mmm, I love tha sound, d’ya know tha?” He said with a smile.
“What sound is that?” She asked.
“Your laughter, my love. Ya looked as though ya’d nah laughed in ages the first time ever I laid eyes upon ya,” he told her.
“I hadn’t,” she confessed. “But I’m laughing now.”
“And smiling,” he added, grinning and pointing triumphantly at her lips as one formed.
“And smiling,” she agreed.
“And the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in my life,” he told her, kissing her deeply. “And best of all? Mine.”
Skye laughed and nodded. “Yup, yours.”
“This part here,” he growled as he kissed her earlobe. “And this part here,” he continued, kissing the nape of her neck. “And this part here,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss to her collarbone. “Ooh, and especially this part here,” he purred as he kissed her chest over her heart.
36: Bedtime Story
By the time Taran finished taking inventory and they exited the bathroom, Miko was pacing at the foot of the bed.
Ciaran was still sound asleep amid the sea of blankets and pelts, snoring softly.
“That dude is assed-out, passed-out,” Miko observed, shaking his head as she approached to retrieve her coffee. “What the hell did you do to him?”
“What did she nah do to him?” Taran joked. “He might wake up in time for dinner if he’s lucky.”
“Grabbed yourself two mates in two days, huh?” Miko teased.
Skye swatted him in the chest for the assumption and smiled when his mouth slowly but surely formed a silent, ‘Owww!’
“I only have one mate, and Taran is filling that position,” she said as she leaned against him and sipped her coffee.
“Hey, Tar – that reminds me, can I ask you a question?” Miko asked hopefully. “It’s not for the Ashers. It’s just to satisfy my own curiosity.”
“Ya can ask me anything ya like,” Taran advised. “Does nah necessarily mean you’ll be getting an answer.”
“Fine, be that way,” Miko sulked.
Taran sighed, rolling his eyes and deciding for whatever reason to take pity on him. “Go on and ask your damned question.”
Miko smiled triumphantly. “Well, since you guys are all so frigging antisocial, I’ve never had access to anything beyond rumors. The only thing I’ve heard about faoil taking ‘mates’ is that your laws state it has to be ‘for life’. What I’m wondering is this. If Skye is the only female faol – and there really haven’t been any others that survived – how is that possible? I mean, what was the law pertaining to mate-claiming even written for if there were no she-wolves to claim?”
Skye’s brows drew together curiously. It was definitely a legitimate question. Three points for Miko.
Taran smirked. “Tha’s been bothering ya for quite a while, has it?”
Miko nodded adamantly.
“The law was written for mortal women,” Taran answered. “My relationship with Skye is bound by it, but at the time we wrote it, we were nah aware female faoil would ever be a possibility.”
“Firstly, dude – you helped write the faoil laws?” He asked and let out a long whistle when Taran nodded that he had. “Damn are you an old bastard,” he declared.
Taran got a good chuckle out of that. Luckily for Miko, age amongst faoil was a thing to be proud of.
After grinning that he had (yet again) made Taran drop his typical hard-ass persona, he looked over at him in confusion. “Secondly, what the hell do you mean it was for mortal women?”
“I mean tha faoil can and have claimed mortal women as their mates. The law simply enforces tha if one of our kind meets a mortal woman and falls in love with her, it can nah be for just a few years,” he explained. “Should the relationship progress beyond short term sexual gratification, usually anything beyond a few months...” He smirked and added, “Well, aside from special cases of long term sexual gratification, such as in the case of Ciaran’s groupies where it was strictly hedonism...”
“What? ‘Ciaran’s groupies’? Hedonism?” Miko asked in astonishment before casting a thoroughly impressed look at the sleeping Irishman. “Damn, I take it back, Skye. You ain’t the pimp – Ciaran is.”
Taran did his best not to laugh as he continued, “Anyway, if it reaches the point of feelings being involved and a bit of time has passed, the faol must make a choice. If he really cares for the woman, he has to decide if those feelings are strong enough for him to commit to her fully. If nah, he is bound by our law to have no further contact with her. But if he does decide tha he loves her deeply enough to take her as his mate, to devote himself to her completely – then it is as ya said, for life.”
Miko’s mouth formed an ‘O’ of realization.
“I take it ya understand the gravity of the matter now?” Taran asked, pointing at the stunned expression on his face.
“So... even though the chick is mortal and will grow old and die inside of like fifty years... the faol has to stick with her through it?” Miko asked in surprise.
“Now ya’ve got it,” Taran agreed.
“Whoa...” Miko breathed. “Then I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that claiming a mate isn’t a common occurrence.”
“And you’d be guessing correctly. It may seem harsh or unfeeling, but it is a necessary decision to make. The purpose of the law is to prevent a faol from taking a woman as his own, only to leave her before her aging becomes too painful for him to witness. It would nah be fair for our kind to remain with a woman only until her prime has passed, to rob her the chance of finding a life partner out of selfishness.”
“This has to do with kids, too, doesn’t it?” Miko asked.
“And here I thought ya just wanted to ask one question,” Taran said as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’m naturally inquisitive, what can I say?” Miko offered with a wide grin.
Noting that Skye was as interested in hearing these answers as Miko was, Taran sighed and nodded. “All right. Aye, it has to do with
‘kids’ as well. As we can nah give them children, our law serves to ensure they are aware of tha before it is too late for them to bear them with a mortal man.”
“Wait, if Skye is the first opportunity you guys have at being with a chick for more than a few months, how come there wasn’t like a Scots smack-down yesterday over who was gonna get her?” Miko asked suspiciously.
“Tell me, Lance. Is the expression ‘curiosity killed the cat’ no longer used in this time?” Taran asked with an arched brow.
“I’m just wondering!” Miko laughed. “I mean, you guys are all about instincts and stuff. Suddenly there’s one girl available to all of you. You’re telling me that the others got here, saw you two were together, and they ALL just let it be? Seems a little fishy if you ask me,” he said, eyeing the ancient doubtfully.
“I...” Taran began, but stopped and shook his head. He glared at Miko and decided the mortal was entirely too perceptive. “As it happens, I made my intentions known prior to their arrival.”
Skye could not help but smile at that admission. “Oh really? And was there any mention of consequences should the others make a move?”
“They may have been alluded to,” he confessed grudgingly.
She grinned before stretching to kiss his cheek.
“So if Taran is your mate... what does that make McLovin the McLycan over there? A shiny new chew-toy?” Miko asked incredulously and inclined his head to Ciaran as he muttered in his sleep.
“You’d be wise to refrain from using such offensive terms here, Lance,” Taran reminded. Though, he was hard-pressed to sound serious given how amusing he found the mortal’s choice of words to be.
“I know – but it’s just the two of you here. You’re both cool so it’s all good,” Miko said with a dismissive wave.
Taran smirked and repeated ‘cool’ under his breath.
“So? About the chew toy?” Miko pressed.
“Ciaran is bound to me, but in a different way. He is my confidant, my friend,” Skye said, as if that explained his current state of over-sexed exhaustion.
Miko snuck in a quick, “fuck-friend” disguised as a sneeze.
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. He’s my... best friend with benefits,” she amended.
“I think the most widely accepted title for his position is ‘booty-call’,” Miko informed her as he pulled his new laptop from its case. “So, where are we setting up?”
Skye climbed up onto the bed, setting her mug on the table beside it and motioning for him to bring the computer over to her. Miko took a seat on the floor next to her, busying himself with his iPod as she got to work. Taran wrapped himself around her, resting his chin on her shoulder and watching her busily clicking through menus and settings that did not mean a thing to him. After a few moments, she let out a ‘hmm’ and he tried to figure out what she was seeing. Surprisingly, something on the screen seemed to make sense.
His brows drew together as he pointed at it. “Tha there, does it represent this computer?” He asked curiously and she nodded. “And the wee box-like thing over on tha end, is it what he’s trying to connect to?”
Skye smiled back at him. “It is. So what’s the verdict?” She asked, curious to see if he understood the symbols.
“Miko?” He called, waiting for the mortal to look up at him. “You’re fooked, I’m afraid.”
She laughed at his technical analysis. “Yup, that’s what it means.”
“How come?” Miko asked, climbing to his knees beside the bed and stretching to see the computer on her lap.
“I’ll tell you in a second,” she breathed distractedly.
He sighed and fished his phone out of his pocket while he waited, rolling his eyes when he focused on the screen. “Damn it, my cell is all screwy, too,” he whined and scowled up at Taran. “Did you guys ever maybe consider relocating to a land without its very own version of the Bermuda Triangle?”
“No need to start packing just yet. It’s not a problem on this end,” Skye advised before smirking over at Taran and asking in surprise, “You guys have Wi-Fi here?”
“Ya ask me tha as if I’ve the slightest idea what it is,” Taran said. “You’ll have to ask Latharn what they’ve stuck up on the roof these past few decades because I haven’t the foggiest.”
Skye smiled and nodded before returning her attention to Miko. “I’ve got you online already, but it looks like the Ashers’ server is down. You’re sure this is the right IP address?” She asked as she held up the paper he had given her.
“Same one that was working fine yesterday,” he said with a frown.
“Maybe someone just forgot to pay the phone and electric bills,” she teased. “And since I’m on the subject, where are you guys coming up with the money to fund this impressive little operation? Secret faction of the government or something?”
“Pfft, I wish,” he breathed. “Then I’d have a really cool code name and get to wear a tux,” he said with a grin and gave the signature James Bond pose, holding his hands beside his face as if they were a gun. After a second, he deflated and sighed. “Alas, I’m not that lucky. The vamps find us sponsors. They don’t realize it, of course, but you don’t kill a member of a wealthy family without the surviving members looking into ways of getting revenge. In fact, our biggest supporter is Dalton Chants.”
“Dalton Chants?” Skye repeated incredulously. “As in, the Dalton Chants? As in owner, founder and CEO of Chants Financial Group, Chants Investments, Chants Communications and Chants Broadcasting Corporation? The guy who’s been on television almost as much as Dick Clark? That Dalton Chants?”
Miko smirked. “So, you’ve heard of him.”
“Miko, I abhor the modern world – well, except the cars – and even I’ve heard of him,” Taran said.
“Well, who did the blood-drinkers –?” Skye began, but was hit with realization a second later. “Oh...” she breathed.
“Yeah, ‘oh’ is right. His daughter, Nichole? The supremely hot model and actress that half the guys in the world went gaga over? She didn’t just ‘go missing’ all those years ago,” he explained. “Came home one night in an undead way and Big Daddy Chants himself had to stake her to protect his wife and other daughter. Sufficed to say, when he found out about us, we got one hell of a boost in funding.”
“A good thing, too. If ya had seen the pitiful lot they were just a few decades ago, ya would nah believe it was the same group,” Taran observed. “They earned the title of ‘stake-wielders’ because tha was all they were equipped with for many centuries. Had no training, no experience, no plans and no defenses – merely recruited at funerals, picked up bits of wood, and went out hunting. Got killed within the first month most of the time.”
“Ya know, there are people round here trying to sleep,” Ciaran grumbled into his pillow.
“Aye, and those people can very easily be tossed outta my bed and into the hall on their arse if they do nah keep their complaints to themselves,” Taran warned.
Skye laughed and set the laptop on the table. She was about to ask Taran why he was so familiar with the origins of the Ashers when it occurred to her.
“Latharn...” she breathed in surprise. “He tried to help them, didn’t he?” She asked, but she already knew she was right.
Taran smiled and shook his head at her ability to read between the lines. “Ya ask him tha question and he’ll deny it from now till the end of time.”
“Well then, I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t ask him,” she countered.
“This is true,” Taran laughed. “Aye, ya are right, my love. The distaste tha Latharn – and most of our kind, for that matter – hold for the Ashers is the result of our efforts to aid them long ago.”
“Really?” Miko asked in honest interest and pulled himself up to sit on the foot of the bed. “What happened?”
Ciaran groaned and rolled over to face the others that were now lounging on the mattress.
“What’s all this then? Story time?” He whined.<
br />
Taran rolled his eyes. “I believe tha’s what the whelps are hoping to make it,” he said, looking back and forth between their expectant expressions.
“In tha case, make it a good tale,” Ciaran said with a yawn. He lifted his arm for Skye as she crawled across the bed to curl up in front of him. “Tha way it can be a bedtime story for me.”
“And me,” Skye added as she cuddled against Ciaran. “I’m clean and sleepy and at least now we know to slide a dresser in front of the door to keep nosey people out.”
With that, she and Ciaran both shot Miko pointed scowls.
He cleared his throat guiltily in response.
Taran shook his head, looking at the three of them and finally sighing in defeat.
“Fine... I’ll tell ya,” he conceded grudgingly. “But it goes no further than this room. Fair enough?”
“Got it,” Miko said, miming zipping his mouth shut.
“Rodger, Dodger,” Skye agreed.
“Rodger who?” Taran asked in confusion.
She sighed and shook her head.
“Well none of this’ll be news to me, but I won’t tell Latharn tha you’re divulging the details of his secret fondness for the mortals,” Ciaran teased before muttering to Skye, “Unless, of course, I can blackmail him with it later for our benefit.”
Taran gave a scowl of disapproval at those words.
Skye smirked and pinched Ciaran’s arm for him.
“Let’s see,” Taran breathed as he decided where to start. “The leader of the Pikes – or rather, the group now known as the Ashers...”
“Maybe ya should call them ‘the stake-wielders formerly known as Pikes’,” Ciaran suggested.
“Or you could just throw up a symbol,” Miko offered. “You know – Prince style.” He and Ciaran exchanged a ill-behaved smiles at the annoyed scowl their interruptions earned from Taran.
Taran rolled his eyes and tried to ignore them, though he wondered briefly as to which prince was Miko referring. He picked up right where he had left off.
“... more than 300 years ago was an arrogant man by the name of Vittorio,” he continued.
Darkness Descends: A Skye Faden Novel Page 52
