Darkest Caress (24 page)

Tired, dazed by the pleasure, Liv reluctantly released her hold on his neck, lapping tenderly at the puncture wounds. The action was purely instinctive, even as she was aware it would seal the marks and soothe the sting of her bite. Daegan chuckled in response, sliding his hands into her hair, stroking the waves gently. She licked across his skin softly, slowly, unable to make herself stop. She was drunk on the taste of him, couldn’t get enough of him or the blissful lassitude stealing through her veins.

But after a few moments he gently drew her head away, tilting it up until she met his eyes. They were a gorgeous pale blue, without any trace of gold or the unearthly glow they’d held while he’d suffered for her mark. When she glanced down to examine her handiwork, she saw the tiny wounds on his neck were already closed, the elaborate Celtic knot design already forming on his skin. The stylized O stood out clearly amongst the intricate swirls.

A slow, satisfied smile curved her lips as she looked down into his face. “You’re really mine.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I’m damn glad you love that so much.”

Her smile widened. Daegan grinned, leaned up to kiss her. Liv made a purring sound, meeting the lazy caress of his tongue while she ran her hands over the powerful muscles in his chest and arms. “I’m falling in love with you too,” she told him when she pulled back. She’d never meant anything more. His eyes held a thoroughly satisfied gleam. It pleased her immensely. “Did I hurt you?”

“Not at all.” He nodded toward his healing arm. “In a few days I’ll be good as new.”

The wounds looked sore, but none the worse for wear. She switched her attention back to the forming mark on his neck. “So…can we do this again sometime, or is it a one-time deal?”

He grinned again. “Sorry, it’s a one-time only thing. But I’ll let you nibble on my neck anytime you like. When your mate puts their mouth on the mark they made, it feels really good. C’mere and I’ll show you.” His hand settled around her nape, tugged gently.

Smiling, Liv bent so he could nuzzle the spot. A shiver cascaded through her at the feel of his lips brushing her skin. He kissed the mark, sending a jolt of pleasure straight to her breasts, her swelling sex. When his tongue stroked across it, she moaned aloud at the sensual rush it created.

Daegan eased back, a smug smile on his face. “Told you.”

She pressed a tender kiss to his lips before summoning the energy to lift off him. “Come back to bed with me.”

“Thought you’d never ask.” He got up and disposed of the condom, but as he followed her she caught him checking out his newly marked neck in the mirror.

“It looks good on you.” And she was supremely proud it was right out in the open where everyone would see it.

His eyes met hers in the mirror. Crinkled when he smiled. “That it does.”

Daegan slid into bed with her, pulling her up tight into his body. There was no fever, no sign of pain in his expression, just a drowsy, contented sigh from him that made her smile. They still had a lot of things to work out between them, but compared to what they’d already overcome, the rest was manageable.

One thing she was absolutely sure of—together, they could handle anything.

* * *

Xavier woke in the darkness with a strangled scream tearing from his throat.

Marie.
For a moment he’d thought she’d been there, right in front of him. She’d been close enough for him to smell her sweet rose scent, feel her warmth.

But he was alone. As always.

He collapsed back against his clammy pillow. The dream. It had been so vivid. His heart knocked against his ribs like a terrified animal trying to fight its way out of a cage.

They’d sealed their bond. He was too late.

“It can’t be true,” he whispered, fighting the fear smothering him. The dark prophecy, the blind boy had both told him the woman was the key.

His throat was so dry he could hardly swallow. Tangled amongst the damp sheets, he reached out a hand to switch on the bedside lamp and froze. The room seemed to be lit with a faint glow already, but he never slept with the lights on.

He sucked in a harsh breath as realization dawned. Raised his trembling hands toward his face. Warm, yellow light stained his palms and fingers.

My eyes.

Xavier rolled out of the bed and stumbled toward the bathroom. The instant he stepped inside he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror. His eyes glowed an unearthly gold, shining back at him in the glass. The irises were completely yellow, all hints of brown swallowed up. Eaten away by all the souls he’d claimed. He raised a trembling hand to his face. Touched his fingers to one gaunt cheek.

He was finally ready.

The enormity of the affirmation settled in, chasing away the chill in his bones with a flowing warmth that filled his sunken chest like a balloon.

“How…” he whispered, battling to understand why this would happen now. It made no sense that he’d attain his full power when there was no chance of exploiting it. Unless there was another way…

Did he still have a chance to kill the Coven Leader? Could he somehow still get to his mate?

Rushing back into the bedroom, he found his phone and called the last Dark Army member he’d spoken to. He’d lost Iceberg and three others a few days ago, but one had survived to contact him. Plus he had another lead to follow up on.

“Is she still there?” he asked in Russian when Vasilli finally answered.

“It’s two in the morning,” he grumbled sleepily. “Who are you talking about?”

“The woman asking about the Empowered. Is she still in Nida?” he demanded.

“Yeah. I’ve been following her, just like you said.”

“Get her.”

A startled pause answered him. “You mean kill her?”

“No,” he growled, impatient to find answers. “I can’t get information from her when she’s dead, can I? You can kill her after I’m finished with her.”
If she survives the interrogation.

“Now? Today?”

“Today.” He used his telepathy skills to project an image into Vasilli’s mind. Of him chained to a wall in a dark room, his chest bleeding heavily from the strips of skin Xavier would peel off him should he fail to kidnap the woman.

“Jesus, okay! I’ll take care of it today. She’s supposed to meet my grandmother later.”

“That should make it easy for you then. I’ll meet you in two days at the place we discussed.”

Until then, his only other hope of finding what he needed was the surviving DA member in Vancouver.

Cade knocked softly on the master suite door and waited stiffly, half afraid of what he’d find on the other side when it opened.

A moment later Liv appeared in the opening, smiling in welcome. “I just got him to finally lie down again.”

The lack of concern in her expression reassured him Daegan was on the mend, but the instant he set foot inside the room he caught the lingering scent of sex. Subtle, but obvious nonetheless. It made his guts knot with something close to dread.

Steeling himself, he walked in, closing the door behind him. Daegan was fully dressed, propped against the leather headboard while Liv took a seat in an overstuffed chair next to the bed. He met his cousin’s eyes briefly, relieved to find the clear irises devoid of the gold that had tainted them. So they’d completed their bond. God knew those yellow rings had kept Cade awake these past few nights, but the violet shadows beneath Daegan’s eyes, his lingering pallor told Cade his Leader was far from back to normal.

Approaching the bed, his morbid sense of curiosity got the better of him. Of their own volition, his eyes tracked down Daegan’s face to his neck, exposed by the unbuttoned shirt. When he saw the fresh mating mark on the left side, a strange prickling sensation raced over his body. A kind of foreboding. Doing his best to ignore his reaction and the reasons behind it, he found his voice. “You look like you’re on the mend.”

“Feeling much better.” His voice was clear, alert, if still a bit weak.

Cade strode to the bed wearing his best physician’s expression, shoving aside his unexpected discomfort. All he wanted to think about right now was Daegan’s recovery. Getting him up and operational was paramount. He took the digital thermometer from his pocket. “Open up, big guy.”

Daegan arched a brow but took the device from him, placing it under his tongue.

When it beeped Cade removed it to read the display. “Still not normal,” he mused, “but down enough that at least we know the worst of the poison’s flushed out.” He glanced up into his face. “All your plumbing working okay?”

Daegan turned his head and grinned at Liv. “Yep.”

That prickling heat spread across his skin again and he had to clear his suddenly dry throat. He hadn’t meant
that
kind of plumbing—like it wasn’t freaking obvious enough by the mark on his neck and their intertwined scents all but choking him? All business, he pulled the left side of the open button-down shirt aside to expose the affected arm. The wounds were healing nicely, with no suspicious red streaks radiating from any of them. “How much can you move your arm without pain?”

Daegan raised his left hand up and rotated it, proving he had full range of motion in his forearm. But when he started to lift his upper arm he only got a few inches before he slowed, tensing his jaw.

“Stop,” Cade ordered with a grudging chuckle. “I said without pain, dumbass.”

Daegan cracked a grin. It managed to dispel some of the tension inside him, but Cade remained vividly aware of the heightened connection and attraction between Liv and his cousin. It made him feel awkward, like his skin was too tight. The implication wasn’t lost on him. After nearly two centuries together, Daegan was now officially a mated, bonded male. Everything would be different now, and without being able to hang with him…

Well shit, he wasn’t going to be able to hang out with Vaughn, was he? He’d get better conversation out of the nude male marble statue in the fountain out in the front yard.

The morose thought gave him pause. Jesus, what the hell was wrong with him? He was glad for Daegan. His Leader deserved to be happy, and so far Liv seemed to be worthy of him. She was smart and independent. Surprisingly strong, considering all that had happened. She’d stayed by Daegan’s side ever since he’d been wounded, so she obviously cared about him.

Her fresh mark in his skin had saved him from a fate worse than death. Had saved them
all
. And there was nothing missing between them in the lust department either. It was a good match. Hell, a great one, considering how fast this had all happened.

He kept telling himself that as he palpated Daegan’s injured arm a bit more. Fracture didn’t seem to be bothering him much, which was a good sign. He tested all the joints for range of motion, checked for swelling a few moments longer than necessary. Some edema at the elbow and wrist, around the finger joints, but that was to be expected.

“Spill it.”

He met his cousin’s forceful stare, blinked. “Spill what?”

“Don’t insult my intelligence. I’m well out of the danger zone and halfway down the road to recovery, so how about you cut the bullshit? You’re sitting here stalling while you figure out how to tell me what’s bothering you.”

Cade hid a grin. Daegan had always been able to read him. “Nothing. But I, uh, finally got those results from your DNA sample,” he said to Liv. Was he stalling? Shit, yeah. With good reason.

“Oh.” She sat forward in her chair, eyeing him curiously. “And?”

“You’re definitely one of us. More closely related to Vaughn through your maternal lineage than Dae and me, though.” When he looked over at her she shared a private grin with Daegan. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“I’m not. But thanks for telling me.”

He nodded. At least he was useful for something else around here other than patching up his buddies’ war wounds.

“Any new intel on the missing DA member?” Daegan asked.

“Nope. And no word on the OL, either.”

Daegan shifted stiffly, his restricted movements a clear indication of his pain level and fatigue. He reached for Liv’s hand, his body seeming to ease when she touched him. Exactly the way it was supposed to be between mates. “He’s out there. Makes me insane not to know who or where he is though. But first we need to find that missing DA member. He’ll know something.”

“Yeah.” He stood, rubbed the back of his neck. The growing sexual pull in the room between Daegan and Liv was beginning to wear on his nerves. It made him feel twitchy, restless.

That’s because you want it too.

He almost snorted. The sex? That went without saying. It fuelled him. Eased him when nothing else could. But the mating and bonding? Not fucking likely. He wasn’t exactly mate material. Not with his lifestyle and rough-edged…predilections.

“You make sure there’s no remaining evidence of our location anywhere on the web?”

Daegan’s words brought him out of his head. “I took the property listing offline and put in a false one the other day. Did another check and found nothing.” Shit, he couldn’t keep it from him any longer. “It’s uh…it’s our identities I’m starting to worry about.”

Daegan’s tired gaze sharpened. “Why, what’s going on?”

How did he say this? He wouldn’t bring something like this up while Daegan was recovering from amber poisoning and multiple gunshot wounds, but he had a gut-deep certainty this was important. “The woman who’s been doing our recent DNA analysis. I feel like she knows too much.” Only he didn’t have solid proof.

“Meaning?”

“I dunno yet, but I’m looking into it. I’ll get back to you once I talk to her.” The idea of speaking to her filled him with trepidation. Something told him he wasn’t going to like what she had to say. Not at all.

His cousin’s black brows came together. “Sounds important.”

Yeah, he was afraid it was. But it was after midnight in Lithuania, so the call would have to wait. He turned to Liv. “Make sure he gets more sleep.”

“Will do.” She rose from the chair to climb in next to Daegan, snuggled up into him. The smile they shared made him feel invisible, like he’d already left the room. And there was no doubt as to how she planned to tire Daegan out enough to send him off to dreamland.

It wasn’t envy he felt, Cade told himself as he pulled the door shut behind him. Not at all.

* * *

Daegan was curled around her protectively when Liv woke next morning. Stretching in contentment, she savored the feel of his warmth and strength against her for a few minutes. When she got up she was careful not to wake him while she climbed out of bed. Drawing her robe around her, she studied the most serious wound in his shoulder. Cade had come back after dinner to remove the stitches, and the purple edges were slightly puckered. Hard to believe it would be all but invisible in another few days.

A sappy smile spread across her face while her gaze traversed the naked length of him. Just over two hundred years old. That was still so hard to comprehend. It made her shake her head to think of the things he must have seen over the centuries. The unimaginable changes he’d adapted to. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties, and his body was in incredible shape. The way he treated her, with such courtesy and respect on top of all that protectiveness and heat… She was so attached to him already she ached with it.

Wandering downstairs toward the kitchen to find them something to eat, she paused. Was she hearing things? It sounded like the scrambling of little feet, then a high-pitched whine coming from the other side of the closed pocket door. It wasn’t usually kept closed.

Frowning, she hurried over. Another whine, then a soft scratching against the heavy wood. It sounded like—

Liv gasped when she pulled the door open. A medium-sized black dog crouched between her and the island. Its ears were flat against its head as it crept back from her. Those wide brown eyes were full of uncertainty, staring up at her. Wary. Watching her closely, ready to bolt if she made a wrong move. It pulled at her heartstrings.

Folding her robe around her legs, she crouched down and held one hand out, palm up. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

The dog’s nostrils flared a few times, sniffing the air between them, then it lowered its head and meekly wagged its long tail.

“Come on, I won’t hurt you.” She edged a few inches closer, noticing a piece of paper attached to the tiny red bow on the dog’s collar. A note? “It’s okay, come on.” Its fur looked so soft. She wanted to stroke it, reassure the animal.

The black ears went down. Then it shyly inched forward on its belly. God, had someone abused this beautiful dog? When Liv reached out farther, a wet pink tongue darted out to meekly lick her fingers while that silky tail swished across the hardwood floor.

“Oh, you gorgeous thing,” Liv crooned, gently stroking the dog’s head and chin. Just touching it made her throat clench. The urge to wrap her arms around it and hug it close was almost overwhelming.

After deciding she was safe enough, the dog crawled forward, almost into her lap. Liv bowed her head and wrapped her arms around its neck. The fur was just as soft as it looked, the dog’s eagerly swishing tail making its whole body wriggle. With a laugh, she hugged it and plucked the note from the bow.

The words made her throat tighten further. She couldn’t believe that Vaughn—the hard, remote warrior—had done this for her. He still frightened her to some extent, but obviously there was much more to him than a cold-hearted assassin. Shame on her for believing otherwise.

She sat on the floor battling tears while she cuddled her new pet and received grateful, sloppy kisses in return. Ebony’s fur was silky and warm, smelled clean when she buried her face against the dog’s neck. Raising her head, she spotted the matching pink and white food and water dishes placed next to the island, the few dog toys scattered around the room, the sparkly pink leash sitting on the counter. Looked like Vaughn had thought of everything. The gifts touched her deeply, but their implication weighed heavy on her heart.

No one had to tell her that her old life was gone. Her place was with Daegan, so the mansion was her home now, from this day onward. She couldn’t go back now. Ever. Not to her house or her career. Something as simple as leaving the property would put her at risk. Put them all at risk. Even now at least one threat existed somewhere outside the gates, sealed with some sort of spell. The remaining DA member still hunted them. But she couldn’t live out the rest of her days holed up in this big house, lovely as it was.

The threat was reason enough to not bother Daegan with all of her troubles now. He had enough to worry about at the moment.

It was obvious Ebony wasn’t a watch dog, but Liv thought she understood the purpose behind Vaughn’s gift. Ebony was meant to remind her of a happy time in her childhood, to help ease the sudden transition into her new role. At least now she had something to keep her company when Daegan couldn’t be with her. She wasn’t sure how everything would affect the relationships she had with her friends, namely Catherine. Over the past two days Liv had texted her a couple times to say she was okay, but hadn’t found the nerve to talk to her about everything yet.

She smiled at the dog. After being cooped up inside for the past few days, she craved a taste of the fresh sea air. “Want to go for a walk?”

Ebony’s ears perked up, her head tilting in an adorable expression.

Liv laughed. “Come on, let’s go.”

The dog surged to her feet and pranced in place, tail wagging so hard it lifted the hem of Liv’s robe. With the animal following at her heels, Liv pulled on a pair of boots then opened the front door. Ebony raced out ahead, running around her in excited circles as Liv walked across the cobblestone driveway, up the flagstone path that lead to the caretaker’s house.

There was no real fear in her this time at the thought of facing Vaughn alone, just a few nerves. He wasn’t the easiest person to have a conversation with, but she hoped he’d let her thank him properly for his thoughtful and unexpected gift. She knew he’d block whatever it was that made his aura so dangerous, to spare her any pain.

The house was dark inside, no lights on that she could see through the windows. Smoothing her hands down her robe, she knocked firmly on the door, waited. Ebony trotted over to sniff around the place, then came over to lean against her leg, gazing up at her with adoring brown eyes.