“What did you do to me?” she asked then fought back a cry as pain spread from her jaw out. She tried to lift her hands but found them tied to the chair she was sitting in.
“Just a little knock to the jaw.” He walked forward slowly. “Sorry about that, but I wanted to make sure that you didn’t summon help.”
She was still a bit dizzy and the restraints hurt. “I would not have done that.”
“I could not take a chance.”
Cordelia needed to keep him talking. The longer she distracted him, the better chance she had of being alive when Nico arrived. “You are Neal Pearson.”
“No,” he said. “I am called by many names, Devil, Suprema, but my mother named me Michael.”
She frowned. “You have to be the man who killed Nico’s brother.”
“I did not do that. It was my father.”
“Your…father?”
“Yes.”
“If I remember correctly, Neal didn’t have any children,” Nico said as he stepped into the room. “He didn’t favor women.”
Neal stood. “Ah, finally, Nico has joined us. And yes, my father did have children.”
Nico didn’t look at her. “Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
“How endearing. I was not sure you would come after her since…” he stepped closer and sniffed at her. There was a loud rumble from Nico. “You have not bonded. Amazing. I don’t think I would be able not to bond with such a woman. Although I did learn from my mother that bonding can be a detriment. Say, if I killed her now, you would not be affected. But I had a feeling about you two.”
“Do tell,” Nico said.
“Something about the way you watched her. It was always so…endearing.”
“You watched us?” she choked out.
“Yes, at public functions.”
“So, what is your relation to Pearson?” Nico asked.
“I told you. I am his son.”
“Liar.” Nico seemed to be taunting the man.
Michael’s face slowly turned red in anger, but when he spoke, he kept his voice calm. “I am his son. My mother was Charlotte.”
Recognition moved over Nico’s face. “Charlotte Bryer?”
“Yes,” the man said. “She told me what truly happened.”
“What truly happened?” Nico asked warily. “What do you think happened with your father?”
“Mother told me. She told me about how you used my father to blame him for the murder of your sister-in-law.” His voice was tight, signaling that Nico was indeed upsetting him. She knew he was doing it to throw Michael off balance, but it also made Nico more of a target. A scream clogged her throat. Cordelia bit the inside of her mouth to keep from letting it loose.
But it did not seem to affect Nico. His mouth twitched, then curved upward. “Do tell me why I would do that?”
Michael raised his chin, looking very much like a boy trying to take on a master. “You were in love with her. To get back at your brother for marrying her, you killed her and framed my father after killing him.”
“Oh, my, I am quite dastardly.” Every syllable dripped with sarcasm. “Of course, your father was quite stupid, so I could see where you would fall for it.”
His fingers tightened around the stake he was holding. “Shut up.”
Nico continued. “He really wasn’t all that smart. He was kicked out of Eton. Did your mother tell you that?”
Michael seethed, his breaths coming out short and choppy. He stalked closer to Nico. She had to bite her lip to keep from screaming at Nico. Why was he antagonizing the man?
“Nico,” she said, but he did not look at her. His attention was on Michael, who apparently had forgotten about her.
“Shut the hell up,” Michael screeched. “I will kill you where you stand.”
“Now would work,” Nico said loudly.
“What?” Michael seemed confused. She didn’t blame him.
“Malik, now.”
Neal lunged forward as Nico leaned to his right. Malik came through the door, a stake in his hand. Without hesitation, Malik pulled his arm back and plunged the stake into Pearson’s heart.
Pearson fell back, stumbling. A look of surprise, and then dawning horror, moved over his face. The screech he released was unlike any sound she had heard before. It bounced off the walls and made her slightly nauseous. Nico rushed over and blocked her view.
He undid her restraints then pulled her into his arms. He was shaking when he drew back and kissed her.
“What the bloody hell were you thinking leaving the house?” he yelled. Then, without waiting for her to answer, he pulled her back into his arms. He hugged her so tight, she thought she might lose her breath.
“Nico,” she said, but could barely hear her own voice. It was muffled in his coat.
“Do you think we can get out of here sometime soon?” Malik said.
Nico let her step back, but he did not let her completely go. He held onto her arm then pulled her to his side.
“Yes. We need to…but we need to do something with the body.”
“We can take care of that,” Saint said, walking through the door. He studied her as if checking to see if she was bleeding anywhere. “I see that the bastard didn’t get to you.”
She shook her head.
“Go on. Aunt Adelaide is going to be beside herself with worry.”
Gray nodded to her but did not say anything as Nico ushered her through the door and out into the London night.
Malik followed them. Soon, they were on their way home. She was sitting on Nico’s lap and would have been embarrassed in front of Malik, but she was too relieved.
“We need to kill the other Mades.” Malik said it with such a cold certainty, Cordelia shivered.
“We might be able to save a few,” Nico said, but she heard the doubt in his voice.
“I think they are too gone. And the ones he fed his blood to…they will be ready to kill anyone in their way. We need to send out assassins for them.”
Nico glanced down at her as if he didn’t want her to hear. But it wasn’t like she didn’t know what was going on.
“You have to order it, Nico. You have no choice,” she whispered. “Mades like Malik and Hurst…they will be vilified.”
“You will not do it,” Nico said.
Malik tore his gaze away from the window. “Worried about me, old man?”
“No Mades should be looking. It will be too much to ask.”
Malik nodded and then lapsed into silence.
She wanted to ask more, and she wanted to yell at Nico, but she apparently was more tired than she thought. The swaying carriage and the warmth of Nico’s embrace surrounded her, and she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Four
All the lights were blazing when they finally pulled up to the front of their townhouse. Nico saw the door to the house fling open and servants and family came pouring out. So much for not attracting attention.
He waited while Malik opened the carriage door, then woke Cordelia.
“Love, it’s time to wake up, we are home.”
She grumbled in her sleep and cuddled closer to him, burrowing into his jacket. In that moment, he didn’t want to leave the carriage. He wanted to hold her close, knowing that he had gotten to her in time to save her. And he wanted to be alone with her.
Malik stuck his head through the doorway. “Come on, Nico. Your mother is not in the best of moods, and she will start screeching soon if you do not get Cordelia out of there and into the house.”
He sighed.
“Cordelia, wake up, love.”
Her eyelids fluttered, then eventually opened. Her eyes were clouded, confused, then they cleared.
“Where are we?”
“Home. Let’s go.”
She nodded but before she slipped off his lap, he kissed her. When he pulled back, she was smiling.
“What was that for?”
He was embarrassed by it. For the first time in his lif
e, he really did not know what to say to a woman. She had his heart in her hands and she had no idea. If she had died tonight, he would have regretted not bonding with her. He did not want to go on living without her.
He loved her more than life itself.
Nico shook his head and lifted her off his lap.
He stepped down first, then reached back into the carriage. The moment her small hands touched his, he felt the connection. Nico pushed back his emotions and helped her out of the carriage. They would have to wait until later to talk and to do what he should have done long ago.
He smiled down at her as she looked up at him.
“Get ready,” he said.
“For what?”
But he didn’t have time to answer. She was surrounded by a crowd, his family and he noted, hers as well. Diana and her father were in attendance.
“Let’s go inside so we don’t make a scene,” he said.
He herded the group of servants and family into the house and did his best to calm his needs. He would have her in bed soon enough.
* * * *
Cordelia wanted to collapse she was so tired. It had been over an hour since they had returned, but no one seemed inclined to leave her alone. That is, except Malik, who gave her sister an odd look and then went to do Nico’s bidding to set up the hunt to find the rest of the Mades.
“Cordelia, I would like to have a word with you in private. With you and…” her sister trailed off and glanced over at their father.
“Laird MacDonald, please, my sister and I would like to have a word with you.”
She said it rather loud, and she thought she heard Nico laugh, but she ignored him. She wanted to get this over with. Her nerves had been through so much today. She was not sure she was up to this.
MacDonald smiled and nodded. She rose from her chair and felt several hands reach for her. “I do not need help,” she said rather crossly. She sighed and looked around at the faces of the friends and family who had gathered to support her. Most were filled with concern, except Nico, who was smiling at her.
It was then that she realized that for the first time in a long time, there was a community…a family that cared about her. They might not be her blood, mostly, but they were her family now. All of them had been worried, and Nico…he had come to save her as if he could not live without her.
Tears burned the back of her eyes. She blinked them away. “Please, accept my apologies. I am rather tired.”
Most of them nodded their heads knowingly. She stepped up to Nico’s side, since he had been standing behind her chair as if he were still guarding her. She rose to her tiptoes, resting her hand on his shoulder to steady herself.
“Thank you for saving me,” she whispered in his ear. “I love you.”
He stilled and turned to look at her, his face with no expression, but his eyes…they were dark, mysterious, and filled with some kind of emotion she couldn’t discern. As always, everyone in the room seemed to melt away as he continued to stare at her. He opened his mouth to speak, and she saw that his feeding teeth had descended. At the moment, she wanted nothing more than to go away, to be with him and no one else. But, MacDonald cleared his throat.
She felt her face heat as Nico cast his gaze upwards then back down to hers. He gave her a kiss on the nose. “After you are done talking to them, we will go up to bed.”
If she had any doubts about what that meant, she only had to look at him to know. She nodded then led her sister and her father out of the room. They gathered in the front parlor. Diana shut the door behind her.
“Diana, what is it you needed?” she asked. She was trying her best to be pleasant, but she was not in the mood for this. What she wanted was to be with Nico, alone, and not come out for days.
Lord, she had turned into a loose woman.
“I wanted to talk to both of you because I think we need to face our relationship,” Diana said.
MacDonald looked at both of them, his expression wary. “I knew your mother.”
Diana smiled. “I remember your visits.”
For a second, he said nothing. He glanced at Cordelia. The raw emotion on his face squeezed at her heart. There was no doubt in her mind. He had loved their mother.
“Please, do not say I am wrong. You were there a lot when father was gone.”
MacDonald winced at the word “father,” and Cordelia knew everything she wanted to know. She did not have the patience to dance around the truth.
“What Diana is trying to say is that she wants you to know that we know you are my father and possibly hers.”
“Cordelia, really. Did I not teach you any manners at all?”
“Yes, but thankfully I married Nico, and now I don’t have to have manners. He’s rude to everyone and that allows me to do the same.”
MacDonald still hadn’t said anything.
Diana and Cordelia shared a glance. Cordelia shrugged. Diana approached him. “I must apologize for my sister. She really does have better manners—”
“I adored her,” MacDonald said.
“Our mother?” Cordelia asked.
He nodded. “Aye. She was the most beautiful of women, inside and out.”
“I remember you together, how happy she was,” Diana said. “I-I loved your visits.”
He glanced at Cordelia and then Diana. “I wanted to take you both away…along with your sisters. I wanted to bond with her.”
Diana looked confused at the language, and Cordelia shook her head. “Diana doesn’t understand everything.”
MacDonald looked at Cordelia then nodded. “Understood.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. Cordelia wasn’t sure if she would ever have to explain to her sister what they were, but she definitely did not want to do it tonight.
“Why didn’t you?” Diana asked. Her voice was quiet and filled with tears, but there were none on her face.
“I couldn’t. It killed me that she would not leave that bastard, but she couldn’t, not legally, and there was your brother. But, it seems he takes after his father too much.”
Both she and Diana nodded.
“I am going to stay in London a little longer. I would appreciate getting to spend time with both of you.”
His eyes were shimmering with unshed tears, and she felt her own spill over. “Yes.”
Diana bit her lip. Her own eyes appeared to be wet as well. She nodded.
“Well,” he cleared his throat. “I need to talk to your husband about what he needs from me.”
He stepped toward her then stopped. She could not let him leave like that, with this distance between them. She walked to him. Without a word, she put her arms around him. When she pulled back, Cordelia looked over at Diana and was alarmed. The woman she had never really seen upset was now crying openly.
“Diana?”
She shook her head, still unable to speak apparently. Then, without a word, she threw herself into their father’s arms.
“I have missed you so much.”
He patted her back and looked at Cordelia. She smiled through the tears.
Diana then pulled back. “I will be staying here to help Cordelia and would love to…spend time with you.”
He nodded as a satisfied smile curved his lips. “Well, then. I will call on you in a few days.”
He walked out of the room and the door shut with a click.
“Do you want to explain what happened tonight?” Diana asked. Cordelia was so surprised by the question she almost answered. She wanted her sister again, wanted the confidant she had when she had been a child.
“Never mind,” Diana said, shaking her head and sighing.
“No, I want to tell you, but…I am so tired, and Nico is not going to be happy if I take much longer.”
Diana nodded. “I should have never left you.”
“What?”
“I should have come up with some kind of plan to get you out of there.”
For what seemed like the hundredth time that night, she felt her eyes
fill up. She could not say anything. Instead, she rushed to her sister and hugged her. The familiar scent of roses surrounded her. Memories of their childhood flooded her senses.
“I missed you so, Diana.”
She hugged Cordelia tighter. “I missed you too.”
When she stepped back, Diana smiled, looking younger. “I will let you go tonight, but I do want to talk to you.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but Nico strode in before she could get any words out. He was frowning. He said nothing as he approached her then picked her up.
“Nico!”
“Good night, Diana.”
Her sister laughed. “Good night, Nico.”
“Nico, really, must you act like that? Do you not have any manners?”
“No.”
“That’s it.”
“Yes.”
She sighed and wanted to admonish him again, but since she had just proudly told her sister she had no manners, she guessed she could not truly complain.
When they reached their room, he waited for her to open the door.
“Out,” Nico said to the maid waiting for her.
She flew out of the room in such a hurry, she was a blur.
“You could have just asked me to accompany you upstairs, Nico. I would have come.”
He stopped in the middle of the room. He looked at her, his eyes burning with need. “Did you mean it?”
“Yes, I would have come upstairs with you.”
He shook his head as his brows lowered. “No. What you said before. Do you truly love me?”
She studied him. For a quick second, she saw something that was close to vulnerability on his face.
“I would not have said it if I did not mean it.”
He kissed her then, ruthlessly, as if he was trying to pour every feeling into it. When he drew back, they were both breathing heavily.
“I want to love you, to forget the world, but first we must talk.”
Her body was already humming, her need for him growing with each second that ticked by.
“Must we?”
He smiled slightly but he nodded. “There are things I must tell you.”
She sighed as he placed her on the bed. “If you feel it is necessary.”
With a stern expression on his face, Nico placed his hands on his hips.
Desire by Blood Page 24
