Chapter 7
Brennan concentrated on breathing. Nothing else. Long, deep inhale, and then long, slow exhale. He must find his focus. His center. As Archelaus, one of their mentors in the training academy, had always taught them, every action originated from a place of serenity that formed the core of a warrior’s being.
His serene core was blasted to the nine hells right now. He turned slightly to keep Tiernan in his line of sight while she spoke to someone named Rick on her telephone. He had no way to judge the parameters of the curse, or to know if “out of your sight” meant something as simple and brief as turning his back for longer than a moment or two. What if he fell asleep? She would be out of his sight when his eyes were closed in sleep. Was he doomed only to remember this amazing woman for the duration of a single day?
He wanted to howl and rage at the injustice, but there would be no point. He’d known for far too long that gods dealt in caprice, not justice. He had been doomed so long ago by the terms of the curse, and this was simply another, more horribly twisted, level in the torture. He had found her only to know that he would lose her. It was no more or less than he deserved, after what had happened to Corelia and his child.
Even if he could somehow build a future with Tiernan, she was human. She would live only for a brief time, and then when she died, the Tiernan-shaped hole in his soul would never, ever be filled. He almost laughed at the sheer malicious genius behind Poseidon’s curse, but stopped himself. He had the strangest certainty that the laughter would come out as a howl.
Tiernan closed her phone and told him what her colleague had said about an attack as she flicked on the television and scrolled through channels looking for park news. She stopped at a channel showing a local news reporter standing in front of their hotel. “That’s here,” Tiernan said, turning to him. “Maybe—but, no. She’s smiling. It’s probably a taped segment. Wonder who that is with her.”
The reporter smiled her insincere smile into the camera as she wrapped up an interview with a haughty-looking man in front of the entrance to their hotel. “Dr. Litton, thank you for sharing your insights about the IAPN conference. It sounds fascinating. We’ll be waiting to hear all about breakthroughs in neuroscience. Now back to the studio.”
As the television image changed to one of tiny dancing dogs singing about soap, Tiernan switched off the set. “So that’s Litton. Good to know. Nothing about the attack yet; I’m wondering if it was connected with our scientists. Can you call your contacts and see if they know anything?”
She held her phone out to him, but he shook his head. “If you value your technology, do not give it to an Atlantean. Something in the composition of our bodies or our magic wreaks havoc on small electrical fields and destroys them.”
She glanced at the lamps and then back at him. “What about large electrical fields?”
“The lamp is not a problem. However, large electrical fields pose a hazard to us, and we, to a lesser extent, to them. Depending on their strength, they can prevent us from using any of our Atlantean abilities at all, such as the one I’m going to try to communicate with now.”
He closed his eyes and called out to Alexios on the common mental pathway all Atlanteans past the age of puberty could access, but he found only silence at first. He took a deep breath, forced down the emotional overload still whirling through his senses, and tried again. Perhaps Alexios had not recognized him.
Alexios? Can you hear me? We have news of an attack and wanted to learn if Lucas and his Pack were safe.
There was another brief silence, and then Alexios’s familiar dry tone rang strongly in response.
That was you? Interesting. Oh, and open your door.
Brennan crossed to the door and flung it open again, this time far more pleased to see their visitors. Alexios, Grace, and Lucas stood in the hallway, all of them looking grim. He moved away from the door and stood next to Tiernan while the three entered the small room. When they’d closed the door, Tiernan moved forward as if to shake hands with Alexios, and Brennan’s hand shot out, almost without his own volition, stopping her with an iron grip on her arm. Rage, as dark and deadly as it was unreasonable, flashed through his body at a sudden very unwelcome memory, and every muscle in his body tightened to battle readiness.
“You touched her,” he said to Alexios, trying to focus through the red haze that moved rapidly to obscure his vision. “She was naked, and you put your godsdamned hands on her body.”
He tried for calm, and failed. Tried for serenity, but Tiernan pulled her arm away, trying to escape him, and serenity shattered. He caught her arms and yanked her up to face him, forcing the words out through his clenched teeth. “I am sorry for this, but it appears I must kill him.”
Tiernan blinked, her lovely dark eyes enormous in her too-pale face, but then, shockingly, she laughed. “What? You’re apologizing to
me
? Seems like you want to apologize to him.”
“Damn right,” Alexios snapped, both hands suddenly holding daggers.
Brennan hadn’t seen Grace move, but her bow was now drawn, the silver-tipped arrow pointed directly at his head. He released Tiernan and pushed her behind him, out of the way of danger.
“Oh, there is going to be a lot of apologizing going on, my friend,” Grace snapped, but to Brennan’s surprise, she was directing her comment to Alexios. “Do you mind telling me exactly where you had your hands on another woman’s naked body?”
Alexios whipped his head back and forth between Grace and Brennan, a helpless expression crossing his face. He opened and closed his mouth a few times and finally managed to reply. “Boston?”
Tiernan made a funny snorting noise, moving up next to Brennan again. “Boston! I was expecting ‘only her hip, honey,’ or ‘just her arm to help her when she passed out,’ but he says, ‘Boston.’” Her cheeks and mouth quivered strangely and then she dissolved in laughter. “Boston!” she cried out, bending over. “He said Boston.”
There was total silence in the room, except for Tiernan’s helpless laughter, and then Grace lowered her bow, her mouth quirking into a smile. “He did, didn’t he, the big lunkhead?” She started laughing, too. “Boston! Well, now I’m not worried. At least it wasn’t, oh,
Cleveland
.”
For some reason, that started Tiernan off on a new round of laughter, and the two women laughed so hard their breath began to sputter in broken gasps. Brennan, all urge to murder one of his closest friends in the world having vanished completely, stared at Alexios and Lucas, totally mystified. “Boston? Why is that funny?”
Alexios shot a hard stare at him and then, evidently satisfied that his own death was no longer imminent, sheathed his daggers. “I have no idea,” he confessed.
“Women,” Lucas said, shrugging. “You guys okay now? Nobody going to kill anybody else?”
Brennan bowed toward Alexios, a deep shame for his reaction coursing through him. “I cannot hope for you to forgive me for my actions, my friend—”
“Oh, save it,” Alexios said, grinning. “I’m going to enjoy seeing you brought low by a woman like the rest of us.”
Grace, her bow slung over her shoulder and her peals of laughter dying down, elbowed Alexios in the ribs. “Raised high by a woman, isn’t that what you meant to say, darling?”
She grinned up at him, and Alexios pulled her close and pressed a brief kiss to her lips. “Exactly. Now. Before the death threats started, what in the nine hells was going on here? And I think you’d better start with your reaction to Tiernan.”
“His reaction to me is none of your damn business,” Tiernan said, reaching for Brennan’s hand. “Leave him alone. He’s been through a lot tonight.”
Brennan was stunned into utter stillness when he felt her warm hand clasp his own. Then she did something even more shocking. She stepped forward so she was standing in front of Brennan, as if to protect him.
She
wanted to protect
him
.
She
was defending
him
.
His heart, so long unused, fell out of his body and shattered into tiny pieces at her feet. He wanted to weep. He wanted to shout out his joy and triumph to the universe. He did neither, but simply moved to stand at her side, where he hoped to spend the rest of eternity.
“
He’s
been through a lot? Look, Butler, he just offered to kill me, in case your memory’s not working,” Alexios said.
“Yeah, yeah, but it was the curse, so now can we get past the death threat that wasn’t, and talk about something important?” Tiernan pointed at Grace and Lucas, then looked at Brennan. “I’m going to say hi to the nice people now. Try not to kill anybody, or I might not come to your rescue this time.”
Brennan was speechless, a complicated combination of dismay and amusement warring for control of his emotions. Tiernan was handling him exactly the way he’d seen Grace handle Alexios, and the princes’ women handle them, for that matter. Like he was the smoothest, silkiest of Atlantean clay in her hands.
Oh, by all the gods, he was in for a wild ride. If only Poseidon would allow it.
“I’m Tiernan Butler, ace reporter, on the scene for the same reason you are,” Tiernan was saying to Grace. “My cover name is Tracy Baum here, so please call me Tracy all the time so you don’t accidentally trip and say Tiernan. I’m sorry about the naked thing, by the way. Your guy and a few of his buddies rescued me from a very bad situation with some very nasty vamps and their followers. And when I passed out, I was wrapped up in a
very
big sheet, just so you know.”
Grace grinned and shook Tiernan’s hand. “In Boston, I’m guessing? I’m Grace Havilland and this is Lucas, the alpha of the Yellowstone wolf pack.”
Lucas shook Tiernan’s hand, sheer uncomplicated glee lighting up his face. “You have no idea how glad I am to meet the woman who brought the crazy to Brennan.”
Brennan inhaled and exhaled long, slow breaths as the volcano of jealous rage tried to climb up his gut again at the sight of the wolf alpha touching Tiernan. She glanced back at him, as if she’d sensed something, and quickly released Lucas’s hand and crossed back to Brennan, standing near enough that he could touch her if he wanted.
Wanted. Ah, the cosmic joke of the gods. He wanted to do nothing
other
than touch this woman. Deep breaths. He could do this. Two millennia of reason could not be washed away by a tidal wave of emotion in the space of hours.
“Okay, enough socializing,” Lucas said. “The attack in the park? Those weren’t my wolves. We didn’t recognize them, so they were imports. Witness reports on the scene said that they didn’t know where they were or even who they were, from what anyone could tell. They were confused and groggy, like they were on drugs.”
“Or like they’d been dosed with drugs,” Tiernan said. “That lab must be around here. What if they’re releasing test subjects in a kind of twisted experiment?”
“That, or they could have escaped,” Grace pointed out.
Brennan nodded. “Either possibility raises serious concerns for the safety of park visitors, not to mention your Pack, Lucas.”
Lucas slammed his hand against the wall and bared his teeth in a snarl. “You think we don’t know that? My mate and children were less than ten miles away from that attack. What if we’re the target? First they take our Pack members, and then they point their murderous thugs in our direction.”
Alexios put a steadying hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We know. We’re here to help you make sure no harm comes to your family.”
“What is the plan?” Tiernan asked. “Let’s get to it before we’re any later to this midnight reception thing than we already are.”
“We’re staff,” Alexios said. “Lucas and I are extra security, and Grace is going in as a backup bartender.”
“Seems the regular bartender called in sick,” Grace added, her fingers moving restlessly on her bow. “Imagine that.”
“She’s a member of my Pack, currently taking her children on a holiday away from the park until this situation is resolved,” Lucas said grimly. “As Honey should do, if she would only listen to reason.”
“Tiernan and Grace should leave, as well,” Alexios said, scowling at Grace to forestall the inevitable protest.
“And I will, if things change,” Grace said, surprising Brennan, who had not expected the warrior woman to agree to abandon the fight. “You know I will.” She touched Alexios’s scarred cheek briefly and smiled up at him. “But now I need to hide my weapons in my coat, get to the bar, set up to pour drinks for science geeks, and hope they’re anxious to spill their evil secrets to a friendly ear.”
“Your ear had better be all that’s friendly,” Alexios growled.
Grace laughed as she headed for the door. “Right. You want to try that again, naked-woman toucher?”
Then she was gone, the door shutting behind her before Alexios could respond.
“We should be going, too. We’re signed on for the midnight to six A.M. shift,” Lucas said, glancing at his watch.
“You go. I’ll be right there,” Alexios said.
After Lucas left the room, Alexios wasted no time getting to the point. “You,” he said, pointing at Brennan. “What in the nine hells is going on?”
He turned to Tiernan. “What or who was biting you?” Before Brennan could react to the fury that seared through his veins at the reminder that someone had hurt his woman—no, not
his
woman, only in his dreams would she ever be his woman—had hurt
Tiernan
, she again seemed to recognize what he needed and took his hand.
“It wasn’t as bad as you’re making it sound. In fact, I think we have an ally. The problem is that I’m not sure who he was, although I have my suspicions,” she began. She quickly told them of her encounter with the cryptic vampire.
“You think it could be this Devon?” Brennan asked, still holding tightly to her hand. Her touch calmed the monstrous rage that threatened to consume him at the thought of her in danger.