Although with the way things were going, it was entirely possible that the things he wanted to see would be wiped out by the end of the century.
“No need to be so shy,” Gregory chuckled. “I’m covered. Now stand straight as a vampire should.”
Isaac cautiously looked up. His shoulders relaxed when he saw that Gregory was, in fact, covered. He wore a crimson robe belted around his waist, and Isaac was glad for it. His fears had eased, and he clasped his hands behind his back while keeping his head up.
“You didn’t seem to be enjoying yourself,” Gregory drawled. “I suppose watching isn’t for everybody. Now. What news do you have to report to me?”
And this was it. Isaac took a deep breath. He had been thinking about lying, saying that Rune told him that all of Gregory’s plans would fail. But he had a feeling that Gregory would see right through that. So, what choice did he have? Isaac kept his voice monotone as he spoke.
“The psychic had a vision. She saw you laughing in triumph.”
Gregory stared at him.
Isaac stared back.
“That’s it?” the king’s voice was heavy with scorn. “That’s all you found out? I sent you to get an answer to my question. What sort of answer is that? Laughing in triumph. That tells me nothing!”
Isaac’s brow furrowed. “It’s enough. It tells us that you’ll succeed—”
“Or that I will think I’ll succeed. Or someone who looks like me. For all you know, I could be making a baby shampoo commercial!” Gregory roared as he overturned the table the two women had been sprawled on.
Isaac backed away as the king started to pace back and forth, his movements jerky and agitated. Gregory sent a hot glare at him and Isaac dropped his head. He hadn’t even considered that there were other possibilities to Rune’s vision. But, now that he stopped to think, there were. The crowned figure might not even be Gregory. It could be anybody. And he hadn’t asked what sort of triumph it was; was it the kind that you got from taking over the world, or getting a trivia question right?
“I could rip off your arm for this,” Gregory seethed. “Such a stupid, stupid assumption to make.”
For once, Isaac agreed with him. Had he really been so distracted by Rune that he had simply jumped to the worse possible conclusion and decided that was it? Was he so desperate to end the budding closeness between them, to get her away from him before she got hurt?
Or was it that he sensed, on some level, that Dane was coming after him again? That he needed to get a move on, or he’d end up burnt to a crisp? He could have subconsciously recognized Dane’s scent on Rune and realized that it wouldn’t be so long before he came after her.
“You are going to go back to her.” Gregory stopped his pacing and loomed over Isaac. “You will find out more and if you come back without a solid answer, I will make you wish you were never born. Understood?”
Go back to her?
“I asked you if you understood!”
“I… do.” Isaac’s voice sounded hesitant and confused to his own ears.
The king, not expecting that, stopped where he was and gave Isaac such a blank stare it was almost amusing.
Isaac stared back. Thoughts flitted through his mind, but he was uncertain which one he should pay attention to. Going back to Rune. Seeing her again. Holding her in his arms. It made his heart swell with joy, just to think of being with her again. To have her curves pressed against his body. But the way she had put her arms around Dane, the way she had told him she could explain. There was something there. She had smelled of him.
If he went back to Rune, it would mean going back to Dane. He couldn’t be so naive as to think it would be easy just to kidnap her again as he had before. Nor would it be as easy to keep her. By now she would have told Dane about his secret cave, so he would have to find another hiding spot.
And she wasn’t going to be as willing to help him. Not now when she had Dane to tell her all the wicked things he had done. Who knew, he might even have her living with him now so that if he wasn’t there at least his brothers could protect her.
The king snorted. “If it’s too much of a trouble for you, I’ll just have her brought to me.”
“No!”
Gregory narrowed his eyes.
Isaac dropped his head. His heart beat so fast he knew the king would be able to hear it. He also knew that if Rune was brought to this mountain, she would never leave. Humans disappeared all the time, and Isaac knew of Gregory’s policy. The woman that had come to the kingdom a few months ago, associated with some paranormal dating agency, had been lucky to leave alive. Gregory probably fed her some story about wanting to make a positive difference in the way vampires were perceived, too. Why else would he agree to his vampires signing up with the agency?
“I will get the answers you want,” Isaac said, forcing his voice to be firmer. “There is no need to bring the woman here.”
A smirk turned Gregory’s lips up. “I thought so. Now. I heard that you had a run-in with that dragon that has caused me a lot of trouble in the past.”
Dane. Everybody knew him. He wasn’t exactly subtle about how he went after criminals. More than once, Dane had wrecked this plan or that. He was enough of an annoyance that Gregory had gone after him a few times in retribution, but the dragon was strong enough to withstand every attack that had been thrown his way.
Now, though. Now, Isaac saw in Gregory’s eyes what he wanted to hear. “If we meet again, I’ll kill him.”
“Good.” Gregory smiled and patted his shoulder. “It’s time for you to let go of the past and embrace your destiny, Isaac. Now go on. Find the girl and kill the dragon.”
Chapter Seven
The house that Keith had reluctantly told him about was a derelict building well outside of the state of New York. It was near the Starlight Mountains, which made sense since Dane had always suspected King Gregory of sheltering Isaac. Dane had used the rest of his loan from Rainer to rent the house across the street from the family there. He was staying for as long as it took for Isaac to show up, and he’d given them enough money to rent a nice apartment closer to the heart of the city.
The first few days were boring and repetitive, with Dane watching and waiting and watching some more. He kept the blinds closed except for a silver he peered out of to watch Isaac’s building. He ate cold beans on toast, drank a beer (spreading it over a few days) and ignoring the repeated messages that came from Rune.
He was still too angry with her to bother. Besides that, he couldn’t allow his focus to be split. Right now, he needed to concentrate on taking down Isaac. After that was done, he’d talk to Rune. If she even wanted to talk to him at that point.
Part of being a protector meant that you had to make sacrifices. If he sacrificed any possibility that Rune was his mate, well… so be it. She wasn’t, anyway, not when she couldn’t stand to sleep with him. Not when she wouldn’t talk to him, not when she lied to him. He knew that Isaac had kidnapped her. Her cellphone had been on the nightstand table, she didn’t forget to call him. Isaac hadn’t let her.
And she still slept with him.
He picked up one of his stakes as he slumped into the couch, peering through the blinds. It was surprisingly heavy for being made out of silver. That was the thing about vampires. They were hard to kill. Only certain types of metal could even injure them, silver being one. Some people thought wooden stakes were enough, but that was a common misconception. Silver had properties in it that inhibited a vampire’s healing, the way a vampire’s venom inhibited a shifter’s healing.
Dane tracked a car that slowed next to the house, but it didn’t stop, and he relaxed again.
Unbidden, he remembered the first time he and Isaac met. It had been right after Dane was taken from his parents. He’d been told to be brave, to study hard. Then he was in that camp way out in the desert, with nobody. He had been put in the same room as Isaac. There had been a couple of other boys, too, but they were both wolves and only spent time with eac
h other.
Dane wasn’t sure who started it, him or Isaac. But one day, they had become inseparable. They ate together, slept together, did every activity together. When they were paired together for further training, Dane had been more than happy. It had felt like destiny. From then on, they were all each other had. The best of friends. Two sides of the same coin.
He always thought that it would be that way.
Dane straightened as a motorbike stopped in front of Isaac’s house. A thick figure climbed off of it, and Dane knew it was Isaac. He moved to a crouched position, as though he was about to spring through the window and attack him right there. That would be a poor idea, though, and he forced himself to stay still. In this neighborhood, there were plenty of people watching, and he didn’t want to end up tangled with the police at this junction.
Besides, he needed to figure out whatever plots Isaac had going. Killing him wouldn’t do much good if Isaac had already put into place a series of bombs that would destroy all of New York at a specified time. So, he would watch and wait. Wait for the right time to go over there and beat all the answers he needed out of Isaac before finally plunging the stake in his heart.
Dane’s palm stung, and he realized he had been holding the silver stake tightly enough that it was digging into his palm. He forced himself to relax his grip, though he didn’t let the stake go.
Isaac leaned against his bike for a moment, his shoulders sagging. Another vehicle went by and his head snapped up, watching it closely until it was gone. Then he wheeled the bike toward the garage. When he got there, though, he did not put the bike away. Instead, he slumped onto his front porch and hid his face in his hands.
A ripple of shock went through Dane. He had never seen Isaac look so defeated. Even in the worse days with the agency that took them from their parents and raised them as weapons, Isaac had always talked about how one day they’d be free. One day, they would be able to choose their own lives. One day. One day.
“Stop,” Dane told himself firmly.
He could not think about those days. He could not hesitate from a hope that maybe Isaac hadn’t gone rotten to the core. That maybe Rune was right, that he wanted out of this life. If he allowed himself to think that way, he wasn’t going to be able to do what needed to be done… and that would cost lives. Lives that Dane could not risk.
So instead he thought about that day when he found James lying nearly bloodless on the floor, his body broken beyond repair, and Isaac crouched over him. Blood dripping from his mouth. He thought about how Isaac ran and how he had spent days at James’ side, not knowing if he was going to live or not. And how much it crushed him when they learned James would never walk again. Those were dark times, and James had shut down. If he wasn’t so stubborn, he might have given up entirely. But he decided that he wasn’t going to let himself miss out because of his injuries, and he had worked hard and had done everything he had planned to from before the accident.
Dane stood, picking up a second stake. Isaac was headed into the house now. It was a mistake to think he should wait—watching eyes meant that Isaac was more likely to find out about him. He needed to attack now when he had the element of surprise on his side—
A car stopped on the street and Rune jumped out.
Dane froze.
What was she doing here? Isaac had kidnapped her… hadn’t he? And then it all fell into place. The thoughts that had briefly crossed his mind came back in full force and he staggered back, accepting the truth even as he tried to deny it. There was only one reason for Rune to be here. And that was for Isaac. They were… they were together. That was why he had found them in bed together. That was why she refused to sleep with him.
She had already found her mate. And that mate was Isaac Fisher. How long had they been together? How long had Isaac been planning this? Had he picked Rune because he knew that she was the kind of woman that Dane would be attracted to? Or had they gotten together first? Had he come up with the plan to lure Dane out and kill him after his first meeting with Rune, all those months ago? Before they were matched by the agency?
Was that why she had joined? Was that how they had been matched? On paper, they should not have had anything to do with each other. Her, spacy, talking about vibrations of the universe, claiming to be a psychic. Him, a protector, hardworking, insanely popular with the women of the agency. The agency had actually told him that there had been a mix-up, and that was why they had been matched.
At the time, Dane had laughed it off, saying that it was a lucky accident. Because as quirky and unorthodox as Rune was, he liked her. She was pretty, smart, full of passion for what she did. She never hid anything about herself from him… or so he had thought.
Now, though. It just made sense. That it was a honeytrap from the start, and he was the fool that had fallen into it.
She had been there to distract him. To stop him from getting in the way of Isaac’s plans. He must be planning something insanely big if he was willing to do all this. And when he ‘kidnapped’ her… Well, Dane wasn’t sure how that fit in, but he would figure it out sometime.
His nostrils flared as his hands tightened on the stakes again. Was Rune in on all of Isaac’s schemes, or did she honestly think he was a victim of circumstance?
The door to Isaac’s house opened again and Isaac came out, his gaze on Rune. But she wasn’t headed toward him. She raced up the path to the house where Dane was and started to pound on the door. Dane was shocked so much that all he did was stand there. How did she even know he was here? And why wasn’t she warning Isaac?
“Dane, I know you’re there,” Rune shouted through the door. “Open up! Please, I need to talk to you. I need to explain.”
Isaac started down the walk of his house and Dane rushed to the door. Despite everything, he still wanted to protect Rune. Still worried that Isaac might do something to hurt her.
He yanked open the door as Isaac reached the road. The vampire froze, but before Dane could say anything, Rune had thrown herself at him. Her arms wrapped around him and she spoke rapidly, desperately.
“I know that I hurt you and I’m sorry. I’m sorry. But I have to explain. The universe led me to you for a reason, Dane. And I know that you’ve been frustrated with me. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to sleep with you, it’s—"
He tried to push her aside. Isaac still stood there on the sidewalk, his eyes wide. He seemed to be frozen in shock. Was Rune not part of his schemes after all?
“Don’t,” Rune begged. “Listen to me, please. Please. The universe brought us together. I am sure of it. More sure than I have ever been about anything else. And I’m not going anywhere until we talk, do you understand me?”
“Rune—”
“No, no, you have to listen to me. I know you don’t believe that I’m psychic but I am. It doesn’t work the way it does in shows, but I am a psychic. And right now, the universe is telling me that we are meant to be together. I know it. You are my only chance at happiness, and I don’t know about you, maybe you can be happy without me, but I think I’m your best chance. You can’t just give up on us. I know I screwed up but it’s not what you think. I want to sleep with you. I want it so bad that sometimes I could scream. I just couldn’t. I couldn’t because I’m…” Her babbling slowed and stopped. Possibly because she saw Dane wasn’t looking at her.
His eyes instead were over her head. Locked on Isaac. And as the vampire stood there, just stood there, Dane could see the pain and betrayal he’d been feeling flashing over Isaac’s face. Finally, there came acceptance. His shoulders slumped, his head bowed and Dane…
Dane broke. Maybe Rune was right after all. She turned, gave a small “Oh!” of surprise, but Dane was hardly listening. After all his years of anger, hating Isaac, a swell of pity came over him. A rush of charity. Perhaps there was a way out of this after all. Perhaps a way they could all be happy…
And he gently moved Rune to one side and started down the walk.
***
If
I see him again, I’ll kill him.
The words seemed to echo in his head like the remnants of a dream. Had he really promised Gregory that he’d kill Dane when he saw him? He stood there, one foot on the sidewalk and the other on the street. Dane stood in the doorway, with Rune standing before him. Her words were fast and pleading, but Isaac couldn’t understand what she was saying. Blood rushed in his ears as he stared at Dane, unmoving.
What was he doing here? How had he found him this time? Or had he always known about this little hideout…
Keith. I brought him here that one time I found him wandering around the city after he and Dane got into a fight.
Isaac had forgotten about that time. Now it came back full-force and he couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed. Not that he should. Keith had no reason to be loyal to him, any more than Rune did… Rune, who was now turning. Whose eyes widened when she saw him. Whose arms dropped to her sides. She looked as stunned as he felt.
Two cars, one going in each direction, passed them on the street. That seemed to wake Dane from whatever daze he was in. He gently moved Rune to one side and started down the walk. At first, Isaac remained standing there, frozen. Almost as if he hoped that Dane would lift a hand, shout a friendly greeting and invite him over to talk. Almost as though it was the old days, when they were friends.
Then the sun glinted off something in his belt. Something in his hands. Silver. It was unmistakable. A long, tapering instrument that ended in a sharp point. Stake. The word bounced around in Isaac’s brain as a wave of despair washed over him. It was like Dane had already driven the weapon into him. As though his heart had already stopped beating.
There was a time when they swore they’d face the world together. That they’d have each other’s backs until the end of the road. That they’d go out of this world in a blaze of glory, side by side as brothers. When they shared everything. More than one of their girlfriends thought it odd how close they were, but they didn’t care. They had been closer than brothers, closer than lovers.
Between Good and Evil Page 8
