His voice dropped low as his kisses moved down her neck. “And Ladon taught me hand-to-hand.”
Daisy snickered. Gavin could make any words sound sexy.
Your brother is a pain in the ass, she signed, just to be a brat.
If she wanted their relationship to work, if she wanted him to stay and not worry and to tolerate her weird indecisiveness, she needed to make an effort.
Gavin twisted up his mouth as if he couldn’t tell if she was serious or not.
Daisy pushed on his shoulders and flipped him over. She straddled his hips and pressed her pubic bone against the underside of his erection. You know what that means, don’t you? she signed and wiggled, but only once.
Gavin groaned. “Can we talk about that later?” He kneaded her hips before cupping her breasts and moved like he wanted to flip her back over.
She held him down with her face directly over his, so he could read her lips, even in the dark. “That means you carry pain-in-the-ass genes.” She ran her finger down his breastbone. “So you better start apologizing now, mister.”
His wonderful, charming, excellent-bedside-manner smile returned in full, bright-as-the-moon glory. “I do?”
“Uh-huh.” Daisy pressed her hands into his chest and slowly, deliberately lowered herself onto him. She kept her face just as deliberately stern, just to dare him to thrust.
“Jesus,” he groaned, and sat up.
Gavin held her hips and kept her riding him—kept her close with his hands on her back and his lips against her shoulder. “I missed this,” he whispered.
She missed this, too—missed the version of them that they shared after she let go and told him how she felt. Missed the fitting together and the equal work toward combining their futures. She missed choosing him, and then choosing him again, and again.
She kissed his lips and the stubble-covered chin. She kissed his cheek and his neck and the smooth, hard muscle of his shoulder. She held him close at the same time she moved faster because she could take this work from him.
He flopped her backward and grabbed her hip with one hand. The other, he wrapped around the footboard, to hold them from sliding as he slammed against her clitoris. He watched her face, watching her responses, kissing her lips and her neck.
“Ahhh,” he whispered. “Daisy…” He kissed deeply, still on top, still tangled with her, his eyes glowing in the moonlight. “I love you.”
I love you, she signed. She did. More than she understood. It would poke out of her heart and stab into her mind and she’d hiccup and then she’d realize what just happened. And she’d stuff it away again because…
Because there was always danger. Always a challenge. Always something or someone determined to strip away what little control she had of her life.
Gavin trailed the pad of his thumb across her cheek. When he pulled it across her lips, she kissed his hand.
The confidence in his scent curled around her. It mingled with their love and their sex, and made for her the only cocoon her bloodhound self needed. Maybe now, in this moment, she could leave her love right here, between them. Maybe she didn’t need to stuff it away.
Gavin kissed her bottom lip. “I’ve been thinking about Rysa and Ladon’s wedding.” He rolled off but stayed next to her. “And about AnnaBelinda accepting me as part of their village.”
Her stomach tightened. He wanted to talk about weddings and villages? “Gavin…”
“I know it’s not necessary, and I know you have—”
Someone pounded on their front door.
Chapter Nineteen
Not knocked. Pummeled. The person outside Daisy’s house full-on pounded to the point that Gavin had felt the vibrations well enough that he looked at their bedroom window.
Radar barked. Ragnar stuck his nose through the curtains. Both dogs looked back at Daisy.
“What was that?” Gavin asked.
Someone’s pounding on the front door, Daisy signed as she grabbed her jeans off the chair. Who would pound on their door in the middle of the night? She pulled a t-shirt over her head.
Surprised fear rolled off Gavin as he also pulled on his clothes and put in his hearing aids.
Carefully, both she and Gavin looked out the window. Two identical dark-colored sedans were parked opposite the house. Two identical men in identical dark-colored jackets leaned identically against the driver’s side doors. Neither obviously watched the house, though they were obviously watching for trouble.
“They look like spies,” Gavin said. “Praesagio spies.” He squeezed her hand. “Your dad would have called if something was up, right?”
“Yeah, he would have.” At least she hoped he would. Unless something was wrong with him.
The “spies” looked like the Praetorian Guard unnamed triad who had been watching over Gavin since Rysa activated. Except neither man outside was Amir or Asar Sut. They looked much too generic and wouldn’t stand out at all in a Minnesota crowd.
“Those two are morphers,” she said.
Whoever was pounding on their door pounded again. She couldn’t see the person because of the porch, but she suspected they were traveling with the two guard types.
“Stay up here,” she said.
Gavin nodded.
“And make sure Ian stays back.” Ian had no idea at all how dangerous their life was. If she could enthrall him to stay upstairs, she would, but unless she wanted to enthrall out his animal first, it wouldn’t work.
Daisy breathed out a good dose of the calling scent blend she used to tell her dogs to attend for weapons and Shifters. They now knew not to engage either, unless she or Gavin was in mortal danger.
Both boys woofed a small acknowledgement and took up their places. Ragnar moved next to Daisy and Radar moved to Gavin. They’d stay with their assigned human unless commanded otherwise.
She opened their bedroom door.
Ian stood in the hallway barefoot and in his sweats, rubbing his eyes and looking annoyed. “What kind of neighbors do you two have around here?” He scratched at his lower back.
Gavin took his brother’s arm. “Let us handle this, okay? Stay upstairs and out of the way.”
Another round of pounding hit the door.
The scent of fear blossomed off Ian. He nodded and stepped back. Daisy and Ragnar rounded the corner to the top of the stairs just as their front door opened.
A woman walked into the foyer. A small woman, one with glossy, black, bouncy curls just like Daisy’s. But unlike Daisy, this woman was okay with abandoning her children.
A blast of cold winter air rolled in after her and up the steps to Daisy’s feet.
“Mom?” Daisy said.
Her mother just walked into her house. The woman Andreas went looking for after the reception in Branson because he felt as angry and abandoned by her as Daisy did. Because he was a good man and clearly a better human than the woman in Daisy’s foyer.
Except the woman looking up at Daisy might not be Cecilia Reynolds. Daisy had already dealt with a morpher trying to impersonate her mother. This woman might be doing the same thing.
Yet most grifters or con artists wouldn’t show up at her house with Praesagio-like guards.
An older man walked into the foyer, followed closely by another, taller man in an obvious Praetorian Guard jacket.
The first man’s loud, controlled, musical past-seer flooded the downstairs. Whoever he was, his control of his Fate abilities eclipsed almost every other Fate she’d met.
But why would her mother travel with a Fate?
The answer closely followed the first man’s seer: A radar-like present-seer swept the house, then another woman walked through the door—a woman about Rysa’s height, with a leather-wrapped ponytail and wearing a pair of Praesagio Industries visual optimizers. She looked over her shoulder at the guards, then closed the door against the chilly night.
“Daniel?” Daisy said.
Behind Gavin, Ian’s phone screen flashed to life and filled the hallway with low
level light.
Gavin pushed Ian toward the wall and put his finger to his lips to tell his brother to be quiet, though with Fates in the house, it wouldn’t matter. Daniel knew who was here. He probably knew exactly what was about to happen, as well.
Gavin pointed down the stairs. “Is that really your mom?” he asked. He’d dealt with the morpher faking being Cecilia Reynolds, too. “Why is she with Daniel-Adrestia?”
Ragnar circled Daisy’s legs, first moving onto the steps, then behind her, then stopping at her side. She placed her hand on his head more to signal to the people in her foyer that she had control of the two huge German shepherds than to calm her dog.
Her mother looked up the stairs. She grinned, then slapped her thigh. The air filled with ‘obey’ and ‘happy dog’ calling scents. “Radar! Ragnar! Come!” she said, and slapped her thigh again.
Daisy hit the dogs with ‘stay.’ They looked up at her, then down at her mother, then back up at her. They both abandoned their posts and ran, tails wagging, to the woman who had to be her mother. Daisy had no doubt. None. Only the Shifter Progenitor held more than one class-one ability.
Only her goddamned, awful, crazy bitch of a mother could—and would—steal her dogs.
“Damn,” Gavin murmured.
Her mother rubbed the dogs’ heads. “You two are as lovely as your mamma! And big!” She laughed and rubbed behind their ears again. “You’ve done a wonderful job with these two, daughter.”
“Stay here,” Daisy said. “Stay back from her, got it? She’s dangerous.” And crazy. But Gavin knew that already.
Behind them, Ian held up his phone. “The former CEO of Praesagio Industries is all over the news,” he said. “He had a press conference about people called…” He looked down at his phone again. “… Burners?”
Gavin spun around. “What?”
The older-looking past-seer clasped his hands behind his back and addressed Daisy. “Ms. Pavlovich, hello. My name is Marcus Drake.” He extended his arm toward the tall man in the Guard jacket. “This is my husband, Harold Demshire.”
Mr. Harold Demshire nodded. “We apologize for the breaking and entering.”
Daniel stepped up. “Daisy. It is good to see you again.” He nodded also. “It’s me. I’m fully in charge of this body now.”
Gavin and Ian had their faces in Ian’s phone. Gavin looked pale, and it wasn’t just the glare from the screen.
“Why are you in my house in the middle of the night?” Even non-normal people waited until daylight to visit. But then again, her mother was not normal in any sense of the word.
Radar barked and jumped up onto her mother. The woman she knew as Cecilia laughed. “Dogs make everything better, don’t they?”
Marcus, Harold, and Daniel all visibly frowned.
Her mother frowned also. “Enjoy these last moments before the world ends, boys,” she said.
Never in her life had Daisy smelled such tailored calling scents. Never had she heard a voice enthralling carry such specific information.
The three people in the foyer with her mother just had ‘relaxation’ blended with ‘alertness’ and ‘happiness’ forced into their brains on the back of what Daisy could only label as ‘be aware of your enthralling.’
“Mother!” Daisy yelled. She was halfway down the stairs before she realized what she’d done.
Did her mother enthrall her at the same time? But she hadn’t sensed calling scents directed at her. She glanced back up the stairs. Gavin and Ian were out of the sightlines from the foyer. The Fates probably knew the exact locations of everyone in the house, and probably the entire neighborhood, but at least the Bower men were out of sight of her mother and her mega-enthrallings.
Cecilia rolled her eyes, but the enthralling pulled back, at least from Daisy’s position on the steps.
“Trajan outs us all,” Daniel said. The radar-like seer swept the foyer again, just before he moved to the base of the steps. Was he using his present-seer to compensate for Addy’s blindness? But he had the optimizers.
He looked up at her. “They are not… functioning right now, Ms. Pavlovich,” he said.
Fucking show-off Fates making it look like they could read minds. “Not cool, Daniel,” Daisy said.
Daisy caught a whiff of surprise from Daniel as cold as the air in the foyer. A second whiff, this one from Marcus, followed, but Marcus smelled more bored with his prying than surprised at being called on it.
“Their other brother is in that nifty place Trajan calls new-space,” her mother said. “Daniel says he downloaded a whole mess of numbers and equations from Timothy a few hours ago.” She patted the dogs again. “I enthralled my Fate boys here to not bore me with questions and contingencies, so he’s really not all that concerned about it right now, are you?”
“My future-seer is not telling me why,” Daniel said.
That’s interesting, Daisy thought. Then she realized all she thought about it was that it was interesting, and not what the interesting meant. Because communicating with someone inside new-space should be Earth-shattering. But that really didn’t matter right now. Her mother was here.
Harold peeked out the front window at the two guards next to the cars. “I suggest we conclude our business soon. We have likely attracted attention.”
Daisy’s mother walked to the base of the stairs. “Accept my apology for my bad behavior, daughter,” she said.
No, Daisy thought, but like the Earth-shattering knowledge that Daniel communicated with someone in new-space, her thoughts made no difference. “Mom,” she whispered. A hiccup followed. Her mother had returned to her. How could she stay mad?
She ran down the steps and directly into her mother’s arms.
Gavin followed. “Why are you enthralling everyone?” he yelled.
Her mom enthralled the group? It didn’t matter. She’d returned to Daisy’s life and all would be better now.
Her mother watched Gavin jump the bottom two steps onto the foyer’s cool floor. “You must be my daughter’s young man.” She leaned close to his chest and sniffed at his chin. “Good genetic stock, you are.” She nodded once. “He’s a strong breeder. Good choice, daughter.”
Gavin recoiled. Her mom laughed. How could anyone be mad? Her mother approved of Gavin.
Daisy pulled her mother close for another hug.
But the woman she embraced was more Mother of All Shifters than mother of Daisy Reynolds Pavlovich. She held her back in a regal, in-charge, straight stack of vertebra. She watched the entire room with keen eyes. She commanded respect both literally and figuratively.
Maybe one day, Daisy would stand with as much sense of authority.
“I’m sorry, Daisy,” she said as she pulled Daisy’s head close to hers.
Her mother sealed her lips over Daisy’s and spit. Then she slapped her hand over Daisy’s mouth.
“Swallow it,” Dunn said.
The activation spit flowed down Daisy’s throat as if drawn by magnets into her belly.
“Daisy!” Gavin pulled her away from her mother.
The fear wafting off him was as palpable as the activation wiggling from her throat into her body. “Why are you so afraid?” she asked. She was about to develop a new ability. It shouldn’t take long. She was already an active Shifter.
He touched her face and her neck. Hot notes of anger filled in under the sharp, cool fear rising from his skin. “What did you do?” he yelled at her mother.
Dunn wiped her hands on her t-shirt as if wiping away Gavin’s anger. “Welcome to the First Shifters Club, daughter,” she said. “It’s kind of small right now. Just you and Andreas.” She wiped her hands again then pointed at Daisy. “I’ll explain your new ability once we’re in the air.”
She was a First. She had a truly new ability. One unlike everyone else’s.
“What about the baby?” Gavin asked.
That’s right. Daisy was pregnant. She’d been so focused on swallowing her new activation that she’d forgotten.
>
Dunn wouldn’t look at either of them. “I’m sorry.”
Daniel’s blind face blanked. Marcus glared at Dunn. Harold continued to look out the window.
“What does that mean?” Gavin sounded as hysterical as he smelled. “What did you do?”
Gavin’s little brother stood at the top of the steps, his mouth gaping and his phone gripped in his fingers.
“Did you know she was pregnant when you did that?” Gavin’s arms tightened around Daisy. “Did you know?” he yelled at Daniel.
“We cannot see her well,” Daniel said. He sounded more confused than apologetic.
Dunn pointed at Gavin. “They can’t see you because you have the Tsar’s ring. I want it back. Fetch it for me.”
Gavin let go. He dutifully walked up the stairs to fetch the ring off the night stand next to their bed. At the top of the stairs, Ian tried to stop his brother, but Gavin just pushed by and walked down the hallway.
Her mom had finally activated her. Almost twelve years after she’d run off, she’d come back into Daisy’s life and finally given her what she’d always wanted.
Dunn touched Daisy’s belly, but pulled back her hand. “Go change into something appropriate. We’re going to visit Trajan.”
Her mom wanted her to join her on her travels? Sweet, Daisy thought. “We’re going to Portland?”
Harold shook his head. “No.”
Gavin walked down the steps and handed her mother the Tsar’s Fate-proof ring.
Dunn tucked it into her pocket. “You stay here,” she said. She pulled out a second ring, a small opal in a silver setting. After a moment, she dropped it onto Gavin’s palm. “Here. Take this one instead.”
Gavin nodded.
Daniel patted his shoulder. “It’s better this way,” he said. But his hands moved between his chest and Gavin’s. Call help, he finger spelled, which Daisy also found interesting, but not enough to point it out to her mother.
The Burning World Page 14
