Chapter 13
"Take your bloody hands off her!"
Colin had been yearning to step in and stop the harassment, but Cam was his senior on the Council of Protectors. His brother was smart, strong and totally committed to his job. Colin knew the questioning was necessary. He also knew that he wouldn't be doing any favors to Ariane if he interfered.
But he was finding it difficult to fight the unaccustomed emotions that had him in their grip. He kept thinking of that moment when he had seized her in his sea dragon arms and wound his pectoral tentacles around her body. There had been a glimmer of light that he thought might have been the unusual phenomenon known as the sevmelle. Legend said it only appeared between Malloch shifters and their mates. A sort of love at first sight in the shape shifter world. It meant you had met your life partner, and that like it or not, she or he was the one for you.
He might have dismissed the notion out of hand, but Ross had confided that it had happened to him when he'd met his Kate.
Cam wasn't getting the answers he wanted, and Colin could tell it was pissing him off. Still, he had hidden it until Cam advanced upon her, slamming his hands around her throat.
Colin was off the wall before thought was even possible. He leapt on his brother from behind and dragged him away, shouting at him to take his hands off Ariane and adding for good measure, "Get the fuck away from her."
Cam elbowed him furiously, but Colin knew the moves and compensated. It took less than a second for the attack to turn into a brawl, and probably less than ten for Ross to burst in, cursing, and wrench them apart. Colin was shaking with rage and something else, something he had never felt so strongly before.
Ariane was his.
No other man was going to touch her, not for any reason.
Especially not his bloody brother.
Ross had him by the shoulders and was shaking him. "Colin! What the hell is wrong with you?"
Colin was so limp with rage that he wasn't resisting. Cam had backed off, but his expression was grim. Controlled, though. The bastard was almost always controlled, no matter how wrathful he was feeling.
"You know better than to interrupt an interrogation, Colin," Ross went on. He sounded stunned. No doubt he was. Colin had never done anything like this before. If it had been Jack, no one would have been surprised.
Ross called for Kate, who hurried in, looking worried. He nodded to Ariane. "Please take her out of here. Let me remove the collar. Give her a cup of tea or something."
Kate shot an irritated glance at Cam and put her arm around Ariane's shoulder. "Will you come?" she asked gently.
"Not yet," Colin gritted out. He didn't want Ariane to leave this room without knowing that she was safe. That he would protect her from Cam. So he went to her and removed the collar himself, forcing himself to smile encouragingly at her as he did so. Then his slid his hands down her bare arms to grip her hands in his.
And the atmosphere in the room changed yet again. Because as his fingers moved over her, they gave off sparks of pure white light, like the glimmering when he had first touched her last night, but stronger, more persistent.
Even Ariane noticed it this time. "What is that?"
Colin reluctantly withdrew his hands. "I'm sorry. Did that hurt?"
She shook her head. "No, no, it felt nice. Warm and tingly. But what was it? More magic?"
Colin glanced at Ross, whose lips were pressed together as if in concentration. Ross would know what it was. And what it meant. He smiled at Ariane. "We do have strange magic here. I hope it's not freaking you out too much. Let me talk to my brothers, okay? Kate'll take good care of you."
She smiled at him and went.
Cam sent Colin a short, nasty sneer. "I shouldn't have allowed him into the room," he said. "Bad decision on my part. In the past, he has shown more judgment."
"Fuck your judgment," Colin roared.
The twins exchanged a glance. "What's going on, Colin?" Ross asked. "Cam wasn't hurting your girl, was he?"
"He was threatening her. Intimidating her. He put the damn collar on her even though she's no shifter. Then he put his hands on her neck and it sure looked like he was squeezing. Why was he even touching her? She was doing her best to answer his questions."
"Suppose you let me handle the responsibilities of a professional interrogation. Or have you forgotten how many times I've done this before?"
"How could I forget? They call you the Black Inquisitor."
Cam glanced down at his black t-shirt and black jeans. "Maybe I should have mentioned that to her. Works wonders."
Colin ignored this. "I also want to know why you are keeping her locked up like a prisoner. Can't you see she's no threat to anyone?"
Cam just looked impatient. It was Ross who tried to calm them both down. "If what you say is correct, Colin, and the world she is from is less technologically developed, then it's best that we keep her in a state that is not dramatically different from what she's accustomed to."
"Why? Are you afraid she'll be shocked insane by a glimpse of the modern world? She strikes me as level headed and sensible."
"You want her to be able to go back, right? We can't allow knowledge of advanced technology into her world. In case you've forgotten, that's one of the purposes of our guardianship of the Barrier."
"She shouldn't be here in the first place," Cameron barked. "It is unfortunate that she survived the transition."
"Oh aye? Then it's a good thing I got to her before you did, brother, since you'd probably have taken care of this problem by having her shot on sight."
"It wouldn't be the worst idea I've ever had," his brother snarled.
"Stop taunting each other," said Ross. "Christ, I'm beginning to hate having the two of you together in the castle. Why are you always at each other's throats?"
"The only place that woman is going is into a secure laboratory," Cameron said. "She can't be allowed to wander around this world. Things are tense enough now between the shifters and the vampires as it is."
"Fuck the shifters and the vampires. They have nothing to do with her. Look, I found her. She was hurt, scared. She's just a girl. Leave her the fuck alone."
"She's not 'just a girl,'" Cam said. He was back in his cool, laconic mode. Colin hated the way he could do that: take his feelings and slam them so deep inside him that they disappeared. "She came through the Barrier. She was with a sea dragon. The creature is probably dead, but its body hasn't yet been found. I hope we find it before MI6 does."
"How do you know it's still in this world? Ariane ordered it home."
"There isn't much I don't know," Cameron said. "I know that you swam right through the area where that sea dragon was. You knew all about it, but you haven't mentioned it. I also suspect you know more than you've admitted about the girl. I'm not going to lock you in an interrogation chamber and go to work on you because you're my fucking blood. But if you keep anything more from me about this matter, you will be off the Council for good. I won't tolerate disloyalty, especially in my own family."
Ross shook his head, but Colin was beyond shame. Let them think whatever they liked. He'd been the good boy of the family all his life.
"On this occasion, I have a higher loyalty," he informed them stiffly. "She is my mate. When first I touched her, we both lit up with the sevmelle. As you just saw for yourself."
Cam just rolled his eyes. "The sevmelle indeed. First Ross, now you? Well, too bad, because I don't believe in your fairy love lights. You want to fuck the girl, be my guest. She's a hot little lassie, I agree."
Ross grabbed Colin again, while snapping at his twin, "Dammit, Cam, don't make things worse."
"From now on, no one touches her except me," Colin said. "If there is more interrogation to be done, I will do it."
"You couldn't interrogate a puppy."
"Leave him alone for now, Cam," Ross advised. "Let's everybody cool down a bit before we discuss this any further. If they are really mated, then that's a problem we'll have to solve."
Cam turned abruptly and headed for the staircase leading down to the great hall. "A bullet would solve it nicely," he muttered, and Ross had to put a hard hand on Colin's shoulder to stop him from lunging after him.