So instead, I snuggled into his side, giving him my body for whatever comfort he could gain from it.
He’d stopped growling, at least, but he was still as stiff as a statue beside me.
The old man nodded toward the porch. “Little vampire, may we come up?”
There was something very formal about that question, and I cocked my head, narrowing my eyes as the darkness inside of me began to slink and slither and squirm. She recognized Harlen, but even she was stumped as to how.
I was sure now of one thing—Harlen was no human, and he likely wasn’t even mortal. He was strong enough to mask his presence even to my darkness. Suddenly, the man I’d reluctantly liked seemed more sinister than he ever had before.
Harlen narrowed his eyes, and they were no longer the mundane brown they’d always been before. They were tricolored—blue, red, and green. Darkness rose up in me, but instead of fear or even rage, there was something else there. Something softer and far more profound.
I wanted to know what she’d figured out, but she’d gone quiet in me. Unnaturally so, as though she’d burrowed herself deep, deep within shadow where nothing and no one, not even me, could penetrate.
I swallowed and stared at Harlen again with new eyes.
The beautiful winged female beside him waved. Not at me, but at Mercer.
“Wolf man, good to see you again,” she said in a husky drawl that made my body quiver.
Gods above, what was she? I wasn’t into women, but based on my reaction, she had to be some kind of succubus, or she’d come from succubus stock. I’d come across a few during my days at SCPD, and they packed a wallop of sexual energy, worse than anything Blue had ever thrown at me.
And then it hit me. She knew Mercer.
I frowned at him. How the hell did they know each other? His lips tightened into what looked suspiciously like a ghost of a smile. That rotten bastard. I was going to smack him for not telling me about this one.
He slid his warm hand beneath my shirt, running circles over the small of my back and making me shiver despite myself. What a beast. I had half a mind to kick his shins right then.
Mercer snorted and dropped a kiss into my hair before whispering, “Behave, jealous she-devil. The succubus is nothing to me.”
I sniffed and crossed my arms but felt a little mollified by his words.
Then Mercer turned toward Harlen and the woman and inclined his head. “Pandora. And if that’s you, then this must be—”
Harlen shook his head. “I would speak to my daughter.”
I blinked.
Daughter? Who was his damn daughter? But the second I thought it, I knew, and I gasped.
“What?”
When no one moved, Harlen glared at both Pandora and Mercer. “Alone,” he growled, and my skin broke out in a wash of terrible prickles, making me burn. I flinched.
Mercer hugged me tighter, lowering his nose into my hair as he breathed me in.
Knowing he meant to leave me, I turned into his large frame and looked up at him. His eyes were tortured, so pained that I had no problem understanding what he was thinking now.
The end had finally begun.
I nodded and closed my eyes, leaning my forehead upon his chest. His lips were firm on my forehead as he pressed a hard kiss there. Then he said, “Damn me to hell for not figuring it out sooner. Do not hurt her, Death.”
I sucked in a sharp breath and glanced at Harlen. Death? As in... the Death?
Darkness blazed to life inside me, but it didn’t hurt. It was warm and fiery and inched through me like a wildfire. It was a long-lost hello to someone dear. She loved Death. And why not? He was her father, after all.
My heart picked up speed.
Harlen’s eyes were on me alone as he whispered, “I would never.”
Then he snapped his fingers, and Mercer and Pandora were gone to gods only knew where.
I wrapped my arms around myself and waited for him to climb the steps. But when he didn’t move, I raised my brows. “Well? If you’re coming, come.”
Something a lot like a grin flashed over his wide lips before fading away and making me wonder whether I’d seen anything at all.
“You are so much like your mother,” he said with a sad-looking smirk.
Clenching my molars, I took a seat back on the swing, saying nothing until he sat on the opposite end. Just as Mercer had done, Harlen began rocking, and he hummed under his breath.
It went against the grain for me to trust this enigma of a man, but dammit, I did. Here I had one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse humming and swinging beside me, and if that wasn’t the weirdest shit ever, well... I didn’t know what was.
I stared at him, and I knew he saw me staring at him, but Harlen didn’t say anything until he’d finished his haunting song. A peace I’d never known stole over me at the last lingering echo of it.
He looked at me.
“What was that song?”
He grinned, showing me even white teeth. “‘In morte vita,’” he said in a language I didn’t understand, but the darkness within me trembled, and I knew she did.
“It was a song I made for you. I sang it to you every night, within your mother’s womb. I’ve always known your destiny, my little flower.”
I bit my lip, knowing it wasn’t to me that he spoke, but to her. These words were all for her. Only for her.
He reached for my hand, and I meant to hold back from him, but she’d taken over my body now, and she latched on to his fingers with the desperate grip of one who was drowning.
Harlen scooted over on the bench and brought our hand to his lips. He kissed our knuckles tenderly and whispered again in that lilting, beautiful language I didn’t understand.
I closed my eyes as hot tears gathered at their corners. My darkness wept for things I could not know or even understand.
But when he was done speaking, I felt a quiet and profound sense of peace steal over me. Whatever Harlen had said to her, something had shifted within me, something extremely powerful and, I hoped, good.
I felt his searing look and was finally forced to open my eyes.
“You house my child, Scarlett Smith,” he said in a voice very much altered from the one I was familiar with.
As he trailed a gnarled finger tenderly down my cheek, I hissed, feeling just the tiniest spark of his power.
Harlen was unlike anything I’d ever known before. Even my soul quaked and trembled. But his smile was soft. Serene.
“I will tell you what you are now ready to know, Scarlett Smith. And it is up to you to make the right choices. Tenebris is wild but never reckless. She’s always had what her mother and I lacked—heart, passion. But I built you, helped form you in your mother’s womb, eradicating all trace of your father’s seed and giving you my own. You are my creation too, vampire. I breathed death into you, knowing the trials you would face and the pain that would come. But I molded for you both an anchor. A mate. An unusual one to be sure, but one completely devoted to you. Your reckless passion for one another was also my gift to you. As vampire and shifter, I knew full well the trials you’d face, the hardships for simply wanting to be together. But it was all part of the plan to make you strong. Make you able to bear what still comes.”
I frowned, going absolutely still as that revelation rocked through me. Mercer. He’d made Mercer for me? He’d made me? I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.
But deep down, I knew it was true because Tenebris accepted it as absolute fact. The weight of her acceptance almost overwhelmed me with a flood of emotions I wasn’t sure I understood.
My father, the man I’d called Daddy all my life, hadn’t actually been my dad? Or rather, not my biological father. I felt as though I’d just been sucker-punched. It hurt to breathe because every time I did, I shivered with the knowledge of the real monster I truly was.
I was half Horseman. I housed my sister’s soul inside me. Okay, I’d known of Tenebris already, and I’d felt affection for her, but this was a
whole different can of worms entirely.
He sighed and glanced at me from the corner of his eye, grimacing. “I debated whether to ever tell you all this. In fact, I don’t think I would have if Pandora hadn’t forced me here tonight.”
His chuckle was low and self-deprecating as he ran a hand over his snow-white hair. “I really hate that woman sometimes.”
I swallowed, wishing Tenebris would let go of his hand. I wanted to run away, hide, and disappear forever. If I’d thought Tenebris’s revelations two weeks ago had been shocking, then this was the mother of all truth bombs.
Harlen squeezed my fingers tight, as though reluctant to let me go. “Well, say something, child.”
I hissed, glaring at him. “What the hell should I say? I’ve been lied to all my life, by you, by Merc, by all the people who kept telling me they only had my best interest at heart. What does any of this even mean? Am I death too? Is Mercer really my brother?”
He pursed his lips, staring out at the night with a mile-long, haunted look. “No. I didn’t give you those parts of me. They’re too dark. Too... dirty.” He shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut as he tipped his face toward the moon. “You and Tenebris are my biological children, if you want to get down to basics. Mercer is not my blood, not like you and your sister are. He is merely a trusted companion driven by his need to always see you safe. There is none more loyal to you and Tenebris than him.”
I studied his profile, wondering so many things, but not able to focus on any one question. This was too much, too overwhelming for me to process in one night.
“I had to shield you. I had to make you strong, stronger than I’d ever created one of Tenebris’s shells to be. And because of that, I had to keep guard over you day and night. I began to know you. I began to feel... things. Things I’d never felt before.”
I looked at him, feeling the heat of a lump working its way up my throat. His lips thinned.
“You are special, Scarlett, in so many ways. So much stronger than you could have ever imagined. Your empathic nature, your ability to reason with your impetuous and sometimes unstable sister—those qualities didn’t come from some vampire master who I let your wolf man kill. That fanger bastard was merely the catalyst to unlock your true potential. The truth is that those qualities came from... me.”
He swallowed hard. Harlen wouldn’t look at me. He stared out at the night with a heavy frown on his face, speaking as though unaware of the words he said, just pouring out his soul to me.
“I... I don’t deserve your forgiveness, and I didn’t come here to ask for it, either. I don’t care if you hate me right now because it’s never been about that for me. It’s only ever been about making you strong enough to overcome that bitch.”
Deep down, I knew he was not the kind of man to speak so openly and honestly. I felt humbled by this gift even as I was also upset by it. My nostrils flared, and my fangs began to tingle with the rising tide of my emotions.
“I’ve done so many things, Scarlett. Things you couldn’t possibly condone or even understand, but all of it I did for you and her. For you are as much my daughter as she is. Talk about a screwed up family tree, eh?” He chuckled low, but the sound was full of pain too.
I wet my lips, sensing I should remain still and just listen.
Back at the vampire’s castle, I’d learned a great deal, but even the darkness—Tenebris—hadn’t shared all of this with me.
I’d known Death was her father, but I hadn’t known he’d had a hand in creating me too. I felt the spark of her and realized the revealing of my parentage had been just as much of a surprise to her as it had to me.
He sighed, and the wind rolled through the massive boughs of the trees, causing them to shake and flutter. Gods, he was powerful.
“Tenebris’s mother, Bellum, who you know as War”—he glanced at me from the corner of his glowing eye—“could know nothing of you. Not at the beginning, when you were still so vulnerable. So I kept just enough of a distance, distracting Bellum in the other worlds, throwing her constantly off your scent so that you’d have time to grow. To become strong. Able. I set your wolf upon you, threatening him with all kinds of harm if even a hair upon your head was touched by another, knowing full well the wheels I’d begun to set in motion. I came to you only as a woman, obscured in veils of shadows and secrets. And all of it to turn Bellum’s eyes off you. I sacrificed hundreds of other worlds for this one alone. I have bet it all on you, my daughters.”
He reached up and grabbed hold of my chin in a gentle grip, stroking it softly. I did not realize I’d started crying until he thumbed the tears off my face and kissed them off his fingertip.
Then he dropped his hands from me. It was the damnedest thing, but I felt suddenly bereft. I’d lost my parents to the madness of Sharp Elbows, thinking then that I was all alone in the world.
But I looked at him, and he looked at me, and I knew I wasn’t alone. I never had been, even during my darkest times.
“What’s coming?” I finally dared to ask.
“Hell like you’ve never known. I hid you for as long as I could. But she found you in that damn castle. She saw your regard for your mate and his for you both. Bellum went mad years ago, but now she seeks to harm all that I hold dear, and I cannot let that happen. You must win this war, Scarlett. You have no choice. I shelled my daughter, your sister, within you because I knew you were strong enough to keep her sane. Bellum will come at you both with guns blazing, taking out all that you love. Nothing is sacred to her. I know many paths and many ways this could end. But I have faith that we will be victorious and that she will be nothing but a pile of ash in the end.”
Tenebris trembled inside me, and a wave of terrible heartsickness flowed over me. As evil as War was, she was still Tenebris’s mother.
Parents had an uncanny ability to retain our loyalties even when they hurt us worst of all. Somewhere deep down inside us all was the need to feel our parents’ love. It was the human condition. That despairing need could lead us right to our doom, and yet we’d still dive headlong into it, hoping that, just this once, just this time, it could be different, even if they led us straight to hell for it.
“There isn’t much I care about,” I said softly.
He snorted. “So you already know where she’ll attack, then, don’t you?”
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. As hard as it was to hear, a wave of relief swept through me too. I’d needed to hear it, to have confirmation that I’d been right, that War was coming for us. Now that I knew, I could be ready.
He clenched my fingers tight, making me gasp and stare at him. “I caution you, Scarlett, not to underestimate her. She and I have fought this battle for eternity. There aren’t many who could stand toe-to-toe with me and live to tell the tale.”
I nodded, hearing his message loud and clear.
“But you will not be alone. I will send my man with you. He will guard you with his life, if he must. You will lose many, Scarlett. But do not despair, for death is not the end of life. It is merely a bump in the road.”
I frowned, refusing to consider that I would lose anyone. That wasn’t an option for me. Period. “Who’s your spy?”
He smirked and stood. “You know him very well, my daughter.” Then he started walking down the steps, stopping at the last one and clapping the banister before turning to look at me with a sly curl of his lips. “Tell your mutt that Daddy dearest says hello.”
Then he stuck his hands into his pockets and walked off, tall and proud, as he whistled “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” beneath his breath.
Chapter 4
Mercer
Scarlett shuffled into their bedroom just as the sun’s first rays pierced the veil of night. Dark-purple circles bloomed beneath her eyes, and her normally pale skin was an ashy shade of gray.
She looked like hell, and Mercer felt sick about it.
Death had shut him out completely, making him unable to hear their conversation or even to sense her emotions.
He rolled up from where he’d been lying in only his gray sweatpants and held his arms out to her. She crawled into them without hesitation. Her slight body settled against him with a bone deep shudder as she began to sob silent tears.
It hurt him deeply, and he wanted to kill that bastard for whatever it was he’d done to her. But right then, there was nothing more important than being with her, holding her, and letting her know she wasn’t alone.
Several minutes later, he felt the weight of her settle against him, limp and heavy. Her vampiric nature had knocked her out cold. She’d ceased breathing, and her heart had stopped beating. She looked dead.
Clenching his jaw, he shifted her gently, laying her in a prone position before sweeping her dark-brown hair off the side of her face.
She had always been pretty to him. But with her rosebud lips slightly parted, and the pale blue veins of her neck sticking up in bold relief against the ivory paleness of her flesh, Mercer knew she was no longer just pretty.
She was beauty incarnate.
And it wasn’t simply her Et Prochrae heritage that made it so. It was all of her. Her heart. Her soul. Everything. Scarlett was so different than the all the other Cold Ones he’d ever encountered in his life.
He’d never told Scar this, but he’d known James’s Isobel many centuries ago. She’d been pretty, as most blood suckers were. But she’d also had a pettiness to her that his friend had been blind to.
Isobel had been obsessed with scoring a shifter as a mate, not because she harbored a deep love for her furry counterparts, but because she’d been wild and reckless and selfish. She’d been a spoiled socialite who’d loved nothing more than to make a fool of her daddy. The biggest betrayal would have been for her to marry outside her species. The ultimate way for her to hurt her sire had been James.
And it was that wild foolishness that had led to her eventual demise. She’d flaunted all the rules of conventional society, damning anything or anyone who’d dared to come against her. Her blood sire had had no choice but to exile her from her home and people. Unlike Scar, who’d become a freed vampire when Mercer had killed her sire, Isobel had been freed because her own family had disowned her.
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