“JESUS, TWO DAYS IN A fuckin’ row.”
With disheveled hair, bare feet, and a brain still in the fog of REM sleep, I jogged down the stairs to the front foyer.
Their irascible love was going to cause them both to self destruct. The second I saw the handprint on Waleron’s face, I knew shit was out of control and I’d have to step in.
Waleron stood motionless as he glared at Delara with his hands clenched at his sides, jaw tight, and that snake Ink slithering around his neck.
I stopped beside Delara. “Waleron, what the—”
“Stay out of it,” he barked.
I should’ve walked away. I didn’t. “Delara, what the hell is going on?”
“He barged into my room and packed my bag. I tried to stop him and told him I wasn’t leaving.”
Shit. “We discussed this. You have no choice.”
The front door banged against the wall, letting in a cold gust of air, then it slammed again as Ryker came in. He stopped abruptly and stared at us.
I’d said a few words to the guy, but the story lurked in Ryker’s haunted eyes. His maite Hannah had been killed by Rayne’s now-dead husband, who had experimented on Ryker. Scars got him out, but he’d been locked in the subbasement for nearly a year.
“No sign of Tarek. Two GQs, one Long Neck, and a Pest down. Lost one human,” Ryker stated, his hard, cold face expressionless. He rubbed his jaw as if the stubble irritated him.
“Any Lilacs?” Waleron asked.
He was still hoping for a trace of his nemesis, Jasmine. The bitch Lilac had stolen Delara and Waleron’s daughter, Rayne, the day she was born, and Delara had believed for nineteen years that her baby had died. It wasn’t until last year that Delara discovered Rayne was alive.
Waleron had lost it when he found out Delara had hidden her pregnancy from him. He’d lost it even more when he found out Rayne was his daughter and had been experimented on for most of her life.
“No. Damien is on his way back. Ask him. He hunted the north with Jedrik. Something about sunglasses,” Ryker said, then walked past us and into the kitchen.
Pests were CWOs that wore sunglasses to hide their yellow eyes. Their saliva was laced with something that made a person’s skin itch for days.
Waleron turned to me. “Xamien, this is personal.”
I never liked being told what to do. “So is my job.”
“Then you should have been at the airport by now.” Waleron glared at Delara. “Go to the car. The jet is ready.”
“Fuck. You,” Delara said. “I’m not leaving, Tac. You can’t force me.”
“I’m your Taldeburu, Delara. Regardless of the fact that I have slept with you.” She flinched. “So yes, you will do as I say or I will put you in DS and throw you on the plane.”
“You’re using your authority as my Taldeburu when this is personal. If this were anyone else, you’d have fought the Wraiths on this and let me stay.”
Waleron’s tone softened. “I cannot let you be harmed. Understand why I must do this.”
“Stop suffocating me, damn it!” Delara exploded, her fists plowing into his chest. “I can’t breathe! You’re all around me and I can’t fuckin’ get free! Damn it, just let me go. Treat me like all the other Scars and let me live and fight and love again.”
Waleron grabbed Delara’s forearms to stop her assault.
“You want to be let go, Delara?” Waleron’s voice was unrecognizable.
I yanked Delara back from Waleron.
“You want to leave my Talde forever? ’Cause that’s what I’m fighting here. That’s what the Deaconry wants. If you go to Spain, I get to keep my Taldeburu. You stay and they take it away. I’m a liability around you, it seems.”
Fuck. No wonder he was adamant on Delara leaving Toronto. It was not only to get her away from Tarek, but to keep the most important thing in his life—his Taldeburu.
“Waleron, I…. Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
I knew exactly why—Waleron’s pride was all wrapped up in his Taldeburu. Having the Deaconry threaten it was his worst nightmare. His oath was what he lived for.
“They’re satisfied with your temporary stay in Spain. They will in time consider you returning.” His voice hardened. “I don’t want you here anymore, Delara. So do as you’re told for once, so I can at least have one thing in my life I care about.”
Oh fuck.
Waleron’s voice entered my head. “Get her out of here.”
“That was harsh.”
“She’ll forgive me.”
“Not so sure about that,” I replied. “She’s suffered a fuck of a lot.”
Waleron’s chin abruptly rose as his piercing blue eyes met mine. “Do you think I don’t know that? You did not witness what Tarek did to her. You did not see her struggle to take her next breath as she lay dying in a fuckin’ ditch. Her broken bones were from Tarek snapping them with his bare hands. And swellings and bruises covered every inch of her body. I witnessed it. I watched her suffer and I will do everything I can to make certain it never happens again. Even if it means her hating me. If I lose my Taldeburu, I can’t protect her.”
Waleron had suffered more than anyone, and for him to witness the woman he loved so brutally beaten…. It was something a man should never have to live with.
“I’ll get her there.”
“Waleron! Take me to the Realm,” Delara said.
Waleron ignored her as he spoke to me.
“No one except the Talde and those in the Realm know she is going to Spain, but still do not let her out of your sight. I will track Tarek and find out what he is up to.” Waleron took one last haunted look at Delara then Traced from the room.
“Damn it, let me go!” Delara dug her heels into the carpet then pushed the heel of her hand toward my chin. Stupid girl. After so many years of knowing me, she should know by now she couldn’t defeat me.
“I want to speak to the Deaconry. They can’t do that. That can’t threaten his Taldeburu.”
I sighed. Fuck this. With one swoop, I threw her over my shoulder.
“Xamien!” she screamed.
“Stop being a bitch.”
“Damn it, Xamien. You’re being a prick.”
“I like being a prick and you need to shut up and do as you’re told for once.” I’d swung the front door open, intent on dumping her into the car, when Jedrik and Damien pulled up and got out of the car.
Delara revolted when my hand lay seductively over her ass. Suddenly, she stopped fighting and it was because Jedrik was in front of us. “Put me down, Xamien.”
I slid her down in front of me and she spun around, but I refused to let her go and rested my hands on her hips. It was too late to hide the sexual connotation. By the way Jedrik was gaping at us, looking from one to the other, the guy had a damn good idea that there was much more to our relationship than he knew about.
“Sass?” Jedrik’s eyes moved to the placement of my hands on her hips.
“Get your hands off me.” She attempted to move away, but I tightened my grip.
“Stay still,” I growled. “He already knows and I’m not giving you the chance to escape.”
Damien scoffed and shook his head before pushing past us. The guy was a ticking time bomb, and when Damien found out Abby was alive, he’d detonate.
“What’s going on?” Jedrik asked, his eyes going from me to Delara. “I thought…. Frig, sass, you’ve met Xamien before?” A question that he already knew the answer to, because as a visiting Taldeburu, there was no way I’d be carrying a female Scar I’d just met over my shoulder with my hand on her ass. “Since when?”
“Jedrik, it’s nothing. I didn’t tell you because…. Well, Xamien and I….”
“Really? Nothing? Please continue, kitten. I’d like to hear this.”
“Xamien, you know I didn’t mean it that way.”
I did know. And it didn’t bother me, but she was so damn uptight and acting way out of character. She had fight and was stubborn, but she wasn’t irrational.
“How long, sass?” Jedrik said with a bite to his tone.
“Since Trinity and Waleron,” she admitted.
Delara had come to me when she’d found out that Waleron was fucking the witch Trinity. It had been a business deal, the witches’ vision in exchange for one week with Waleron. But she’d been devastated.
Jedrik’s eyes widened and he glanced at me. “She goes to you when she disappears.”
I remained silent.
“Yes, sometimes,” Delara said.
“Fuck, sass. Waleron is going to have a fit when he finds out. He was pissed about you screwing Edan and Liam, but now… a Taldeburu he’s sending you to live with…?”
“What am I supposed to do? Remain celibate for the rest of my life because Waleron doesn’t like me fucking other men?”
“Christ, no, but….” Jedrik ran his hand through his blond curls. “Fuck, I don’t know. I don’t fuckin’ know anymore.”
He sighed then went inside.
“You okay?” I asked her as she stared after Jedrik.
“Yeah.” She nodded and walked down the porch steps toward the car.
But she wasn’t. I saw it in her stiff stride and slumped shoulders. Fuck, she struggled so hard to be strong and kept being kicked down.
I went after her and snagged her hand, pulling her to me. Her hands landed on my chest and my arm hooked her waist. “You deserve better than either of us, Delara.” She turned her head away and I cupped her chin. “I love you, and what we have may be casual, but know that I’d do anything to take the pain out of your eyes. I never saw—”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose and I jerked my head up, looking past her to the driveway, eyes scanning the perimeter. The property was surrounded by a stone wall and bushes, and I couldn’t see anything, but I sure as fuck felt it.
“Xamien?”
“Down!” I shouted as I heard the slice of something whip through the air toward us. I shoved her to the ground and landed on top of her, but not before something hit me in the side of the neck.
“Fuck,” I growled, and put my hand to my neck.
“Xamien!” She reached for my neck, her hand pushing mine aside. “It’s a dart. Shit.”
“Delara! Xamien,” Jedrik shouted. “Get inside. I’ll cover you.”
Another dart flew through the air and impaled the porch rail right above my head. “Shit.”
I rolled off Delara, blocking her body with my own as we dove for the steps at the same time Jedrik leapt off the porch, his bow shooting his arrow toward the direction of the darts.
Suddenly, he dove to the ground and rolled. A dart flew past him and embedded into a tree behind him.
Delara grabbed my hand as I fell to my knees. “Xamien!”
I shook my head, trying to clear my vision as everything blurred. “Get in the fuckin’ house,” I gritted out.
She grabbed my forearm and dragged me up a step, but I crashed to my stomach as my legs gave out.
“Xamien. Move it, damn it,” she yelled.
“Drugged,” I muttered.
“What the fuck?” Damien roared as he came out the front door.
“Help me carry him,” Delara said. She put her arm underneath my shoulder and heaved upward on my weakening body.
Another dart whizzed past Delara’s head and if she hadn’t dropped me, it would’ve embedded in her neck. “Go, kitten.”
“No.”
Damien grabbed me on the opposite side of Delara and they half carried me the rest of the way into the house.
“Call Anstice,” Delara ordered Damien as she fell to her knees beside me. “Talk to me, Xamien. Stay awake.”
“Delara.” Jedrik charged into the house. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but Xamien got hit. He says it’s a drug.”
I inhaled shallow, ragged breaths. Fuck, what the hell was in that shit?
My body jerked and then convulsed and something was shoved in my mouth to stop me from biting off my fuckin’ tongue. Jedrik and Damien held me down while Delara cupped my head in her hands to keep me from slamming it into the floor.
My body went limp and blackness descended.