HE DIDN’T KNOW how long they huddled there, curled against one another. Jarrett was alive. Jarrett was alive. But weak. So weak. He fell asleep in Tenn’s arms right after speaking, as though that act had been scaling a mountain. Tenn didn’t care. He could have stayed there all night, holding Jarrett to his chest, until the twins began their attack and he had to kick his brain into gear.
He could have stayed there, if not for the hand that touched his shoulder. The hand that burned with fire and ice.
“Tomás,” Tenn hissed, flinching away, shielding Jarrett from the incubus.
Tomás stood there, inches away, once more wearing nothing but skintight jeans and a smile, as though it weren’t snowing outside. As though this were just another seduction. He burned like a sun. He must have been feeding. Tenn hated himself for not sensing the Kin’s arrival. He should have known Tomás and Leanna would be together. Working together. And now, here he was to gloat.
“I am impressed,” Tomás said. He was staring not at Tenn but at Jarrett. Jarrett, who could barely keep his eyes open. “You have done what no other could do.”
“I didn’t turn him,” Tenn said.
“No. But you spoke the language of the runes. You heard the Dark Lady’s call.” His eyes trailed to Tenn as he spoke, the smile twisting into something else. Tenn didn’t like that change in Tomás’s demeanor.
Tomás was looking at him like an equal.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Tenn said. “What the hell do you want?”
“Touchy, touchy,” Tomás muttered. He stroked the side of Tenn’s face, sending chills down his spine. Then he reached for Jarrett. Tenn beat his hand away. Tomás actually chuckled. “She expects this one to be a monster, you know.” He looked at Tenn. “What will you do when my sister arrives and finds him whole? Do you truly think you will leave here?”
“We’ll fight.”
Tomás laughed. Far too loudly. Tenn fully expected Leanna to come barging in right then. The fact that she didn’t had him on edge. She had to have felt that much magic. Maybe she just thought it was him turning Jarrett into a Howl?
“You’ll fight?” Tomás asked. “Adorable. And here I thought you had actually learned something in the last few days.” Quick as a viper, Tomás had Tenn against the wall, feet away from Jarrett, a hand around his neck. “You forget your place, little mouse. You cannot kill Leanna. Just as you cannot kill me. At best, you are our plaything. At worst, a meal.”
He leaned in and licked Tenn’s jawline. Fire screamed inside Tenn’s chest as the incubus drew the heat from him, leaving him shuddering. A renegade sigh escaped his lips.
“You don’t have it in you to fight her,” Tomás said, his words tilting on bedroom huskiness. “And neither does your lover. If you want to get out of here alive, you are going to have to play by my rules.”
Tenn wanted to say he wasn’t playing. He wasn’t going to be manipulated by Tomás—not after what he’d just done, not after he’d done the impossible. But he couldn’t get the words out.
Tomás could be very commanding when he wanted to be.
“What...what do you want?” Tenn managed. He shuddered and his chest ached; Tomás was drawing heat from him even now, more than he ever had before.
Tomás chuckled. “You always ask that. My answer is always the same. I want everything, Tenn. And you have just proven that you can help me get it.” He leaned in, and the little strength Tenn had left wanted to pull the Howl closer. “I am actually quite glad you restored your lover. He is going to make the coming days so much more interesting to watch.”
“I don’t—”
But Tomás put his free finger over Tenn’s lips.
“You don’t. But you will. If you follow my lead.”
He let Tenn go. Tenn slumped to the floor.
Heat rushed back through Tenn’s limbs, followed by a terrible tingling that made it impossible to move. He watched Tomás saunter toward Jarrett. Jarrett watched him approach with half-lidded eyes.
“Don’t you dare—”
“I’m not going to hurt him, Tenn. I already told you, I look forward to the fun we will all have soon. Oh, so very soon.” He knelt down in front of Jarrett, studying him but not touching. “But he will die if you keep him here. And you are in no shape to protect him from what is about to come. I won’t be able to, either.”
He looked back to Tenn.
“I will take him from here. Bring him to your friends. We can tell Leanna you pushed your lover out the window or something.”
Tenn wanted to ask a thousand questions, but the only one he could get out was “Why?”
Tomás’s smile read every question.
“Do you truly believe there is a single moment where I am not watching you, Tenn? I observed you and your friends creating your little runic circle. How positively ancient of you, by the way. As for why... I have my reasons. Let’s just say, it’s much more fun to watch you struggle. Opposition breeds resilience, after all.”
Tenn inched forward. He couldn’t trust Tomás. Not when Tomás had kept this from him. He must have known Jarrett was alive this entire time. He couldn’t trust him...
“I haven’t lied to you once, Tenn,” Tomás said as Tenn tried to move, his limbs barely working. “I told you from day one that I would keep you alive. And that I have. But you are right not to trust me. You shouldn’t trust anyone. Not even your lover, who still hasn’t admitted why he was sent to find you. Charming, if not a little convenient. Oh, yes, keeping him alive will make this so much more fun.”
Before Tenn could ask what Tomás meant, the incubus and Jarrett were gone.
Tenn blinked. The room suddenly empty, as if it had all been a dream. He could have almost believed it was a hallucination, too. If not for the shattered stone marking where Jarrett had lain.
Moments later, Tomás reappeared.
One day, Tenn would figure out how he was traveling like that.
Tenn opened his mouth, but Tomás was at his side before he could speak.
“Do not worry, little mouse. Your boyfriend is safe.”
“Why are you doing this?” Tenn asked. “Why are you helping me?”
“I’m not,” Tomás said. He gently caressed Tenn’s face, once more sending chills and heat through Tenn’s skin. Tenn’s mind raced with the images of what other sensations the man could arouse, but his words cut the thoughts short. “You are helping me.”
Tenn reached up and grabbed Tomás’s hand. His mind was fluttering, but he had to stay focused. Had to draw the Howl closer. Had to...
The door opened.
Leanna stormed in, her lackey Justin right behind her. She took one look at the room before her eyes narrowed on Tomás. It was clear, seeing them in the same room, that their relation was only through being Kin. Leanna was pale to Tomás’s tan, willowy to his muscle. Calm, to his crazy.
“Brother,” she said. Her voice was flat.
“Sister,” Tomás said. “How pleasant—”
“What are you doing here? And where is the boy?” she asked, staring at Tomás warily. It wasn’t fear on her face. It was consideration. He was clearly a very unpleasant surprise. Maybe Tomás was telling the truth, and they weren’t working together, after all.
“Your captive is whole once more,” Tomás said. “Our little wonder boy here came through—he didn’t just read the runes, he changed them. And now, Jarrett is back outside your clutches, just waiting for this one’s return. Tenn succeeded. Just as I knew he would. But not in the ways you thought.”
Leanna didn’t even spare Tenn a glance.
“Get him out of here,” she said to Justin. “Lock him in the basement.”
Justin stepped forward, but before he could wrest Tenn from Tomás’s death grip on his arm, Tenn’s thoughts coalesced. He was still open to Earth. And he wasn’t going to lose track of Tomás again. He wasn’t going to be watched from the shadows.
With a whip-quick lance of power, he seared the tracking rune onto Tomás’s heart. Tomás cried out and yanked his hand away. He stared at Tenn with a snarl on his lips and rubbed his chest with a free hand. Was he actually shocked? Or just impressed that Tenn had bitten back?
“What the hell was that?” Tomás asked.
“A going-away present.”
Justin gave Leanna a wary look, but she just nodded dismissively. Tenn closed off to Earth and let Justin haul him to his feet.
“Wait,” Tenn said, just before they reached the door. The sky outside the window was starting to lighten.
“What?” Leanna asked.
But he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Tomás.
“Why do this?” Tenn asked. “Why did you bring me here? If it was to kill her, why not just do it yourself?”
Tomás’s look of indignation took on its usual elfish grin. “Oh,” he said. “That.”
Leanna’s jaw was clenched, and Justin was clearly torn between following his mistress’s orders and watching this play out. Tomás sighed dramatically and walked over to an armchair in the corner, settling himself down and crossing his ankles. Leanna looked ready to spit fire, but Tomás’s grin was all comfortable mischief.
“I crave power,” he said. He was looking straight at Leanna.
“I fail to see how this,” she said, gesturing to Tenn, “is your path to power, brother. I have precisely what I sought: the one who can speak the language of the runes...” Tomás started miming her with his hand, rolling his eyes. Leanna snapped her jaw shut.
“Oh, yes, sister. You have the ‘Chosen One,’” he said, making air quotes. “Too bad you’re going to die before you can use him to create more of us.”
Leanna actually laughed at this.
“What? You believe this boy can kill me?”
“No,” Tomás said. “But having him here will make him the perfect scapegoat. After all, our brethren already know his name. They know to fear him, as much as they covet.”
“Coward,” Leanna said.
Tomás chuckled.
“I am many things, but a coward I am not. If I killed you, the rest of our brethren would be up in arms. What would our mother say? I’d have the entirety of the Dark Lady’s army at my throat. But if the Chosen One kills you? Well, no harm, no foul, as they say.”
“Get him out of here,” Leanna growled. She didn’t take her eyes off Tomás, but the flick of her wrist toward Justin was indicator enough. “I’ll deal with this traitor.”
“Perhaps you will,” Tomás said. “But, dear sister, there are two things about this boy I have come to expect.”
“And what are those?” Leanna asked. Justin had already begun dragging Tenn away. They were nearly out the door when Tenn caught Tomás’s final word.
“Twins.”
Above them, on cue, thunder roared. Even Justin paused.
Leanna was at the window in a heartbeat, one hand pressed to the pane. Tomás didn’t take his eyes off Tenn. His smile spoke volumes; it made Tenn’s blood run hot and cold.
“How did they—” Leanna began.
“Go undetected?” Tomás asked. He winked at Tenn. “You’ll have to ask our weak little friend over here. Apparently, he has a few tricks up his sleeve.”
“The runes,” Leanna hissed. She opened to Earth. Tenn knew without a doubt that she was trying to find the twins’ hiding place. And he knew she would never succeed.
“Bingo,” Tomás said.
“Why is he still here?” Leanna yelled.
Justin jolted and continued dragging Tenn back down the hall. Tenn tried to struggle, to break free, but Justin was much stronger. The whole world shuddered as the twins began their attack.
And Tenn was right in the center of their target.
He stopped struggling.
At least Jarrett was safe. At least one of them had made it out of here alive.
If Tomás had been telling the truth.