Death's Redemption (The Eternal Lovers Series) (19 page)

She shouldn’t be pissed at him, but she was. It was irrational and she wasn’t going to flip out the way she had earlier, but why in the hell had he saved her when her fate remained unchanged?

“I see where you’re going with this.”

Mila shook her head. “Where?”

“You’re transparent. Listen, I didn’t say she wouldn’t be stopped. Everything has a weakness. You should know that by now.”

His words were gentle. She set down her utensils, then steepled her fingers. “I’ve been running all my life. So did my ancestors. In all that time not one of us learned how to slow the shadow down, not wind up either dying by our own hand or having the very soul ripped from us.”

Frenzy scratched his cheek. “The wild hunt is a time of chaos and madness; more than just the shadow was birthed from it. But anything that comes to life during that time is the manifestation of The Morrigan’s will. When I kissed it, I saw a vision of darkness floating before my queen.”

Her nostrils flared. “I don’t understand.”

“It means that the knowledge of how to destroy that creature lies with her.”

She laughed, but it was more ironic than happy. “The queen of darkness? Are you seriously suggesting we go and beg her to tell us the secret? She never will. I’m no fae, but even I know the queen would never help anyone without benefiting from it in some way.”

“Exactly.”

His eyes danced and she felt like she was missing something, like the obvious was right under her nose but she couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Tapping the table for emphasis, he said, “We make it worth her while. Only there’s a problem.”

“Isn’t there always?” Mila rolled her eyes.

He ignored her comment. “The queen rarely leaves faerie. Which means we’d have to go there.”

“Ah,” she said, understanding finally dawning. “I’d have to walk into the lion’s den.” Much as she wanted to end this thing, there was no way she could do that. Out here she wasn’t all that safe, but knowingly walking into faerie, into a place where everyone and anyone was gunning for her, it was suicide. “You know I can’t do that.”

“I’ve tasted the powers of that creature. I cannot stop it. My kiss only stunned her, and for how long, I have no idea. A day, a week, month? Who knows.” He shrugged. “Then we’re back to running again and starting all over from square one.”

“Can’t you kiss her again?” she asked in vain hope.

“No.” He leaned back in his chair. “To kiss her I’d need to get in close and have her unawares; the element of surprise is gone. The only way to stop her is to take this to the queen.”

Her heart quickened as a terrible sort of feeling rolled through her gut. “I’m not safe, not even with the queen. You don’t understand, she’ll use me, just like everyone else. She’ll—”

Getting up quickly, he walked around to her side of the table and latched on to her wrists, dragging them into his chest. “I won’t let her do that to you. I won’t let that happen.”

His gaze was so sincere, his silver eyes hypnotic, helping to ease a little of the anxiety flowing hot and hard through her. “Why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?” Her voice was a small thread of sound.

Brushing his knuckles along her cheekbone, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Because I was tasked with this duty…”

Heart sinking to the region of her knees, she whispered a small “Oh.” Having sex didn’t automatically mean he’d have to confess undying love to her; she was a vampire now, with vampire’s needs. She’d wanted the satisfaction of his body as much as he’d wanted hers. But there was still that part of her, would likely always be that part of her, that needed to be wanted. Needed to hear that she wasn’t alone because they
wanted
to be with her and not because of being tasked with a duty.

Lifting her chin with the tip of his finger, he shook his head. “And because no one should have to be alone. I didn’t give you a fair shake when I first met you, O’Fallen. I was angry and jaded.” He shrugged, lips quirking self-consciously. “None of which was your fault.” Chewing on a corner of his lip he turned his face to the side, eyes staring off into the distance, as if in thought.

She sighed. “I saw a vision of you. And a woman in red.”

He jerked his gaze up.

“A woman with eyes a lot like mine.”

Releasing her, he stood back. “What did you see?”

She shook her head. “You loved her. And she was mortal. Once upon a time you didn’t hate humans.”

He didn’t speak.

“Is she the reason why you do?”

Gathering up their dishes, he took them to the sink. She hadn’t been done with the steak, but she was satisfied at least. Felt better than she had in days.

“How much did you see?” He asked with his back to her, turning on a faucet as he set about to clean their dishes.

Seeing
wasn’t something she could control. She couldn’t look at a person and decide she wanted to know all their dirty little secrets. It was something that in the past she didn’t get concerned about, so why did she suddenly feel as if she’d peeked into something personal and private?

“You have to understand, Frenzy, I can’t control when—”

“What!” he snapped, spine rigid and still not looking at her. “Did you see?”

Jerking at the boom of his sonorous voice, she shook her head. “Not much.” Which wasn’t really true; she’d seen enough. Her life and love, her grisly murder. She nibbled her lip.

The silence was thick and so loud she heard the echo of her heart beating through her ears.

“Talk to me,” she whispered, raising a hand as if to touch his shoulder.

He was gripping on to the edge of the sink and counter and shifted out of her reach the moment she got to him, as if he’d sensed her nearness. But then she caught sight of his eyes watching her from the reflection in the glass window. They were dark and stormy, angry as they’d been when the two had first met. She had a decision to make: lash out and be vindictive, or breathe and realize that this was genuine hurt he was feeling, and try, for once, to empathize with another.

Swallowing, she grabbed on to his hand. His fingers were strong and so deliciously warm, and she felt the heat spread through her limbs from the point of contact. “I’m sorry, Frenzy. I shouldn’t have told you that.”

Rather than let go, he squeezed, and though she still felt the anger vibrating through him, he moved in closer to her instead of away.

Relieved, she began to prattle. “My mouth has always gotten me into too much trouble. It’s why the vampires found me.”

“What’d you do?” he asked after a second’s pause.

“I saw something.”

His brows lowered. He looked so breathtakingly gorgeous in the faint flickering of candlelight. It was still astonishing to her that she could see so much better in death than she had in life. It was dark as pitch out and there was very little light in the cabin, and yet she had no problem making out the deep red of his hair, the bearded shadow along his chiseled jawline. The smoky gray tint of his black, fitted shirt, which helped highlight muscle rather than hide it.

She’d touched him today and he her. Everything was different now. And like a junkie craving his fix, she needed to touch him again. Moving into him, knowing full well he could reject her if he wanted to, she planted her hands on his powerful chest, liking the feel of his heart beating beneath her palm.

“What did you see?” His low voice shivered across her flesh, made her hot and cold, and now that the craving for sustenance had been satisfied a different craving took hold of her again.

They held gazes, the air expectant and pregnant with desire and need so sharp it was a visceral yearning. Her fingers twitched in the soft cotton of his shirt, and her breath came out quivery and airy.

“I saw a little girl. A beautiful little blond girl. She was playing outside the doors of the pub I’d been drinking at for the past hour.”

“Who was the girl?” His minty breath feathered across her lips, making her pulse thunder and her loins tighten with heat. Damning her wildly inappropriate responses to his innocent questions, she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate.

The best thing, of course, would have been to step away from him, put some distance between them. Maybe then she could think, reason, and not act like such a sex-deprived fiend, but her brain and her body were two opposing forces.

Swallowing hard, she turned her face to the side. Breaking eye contact helped clear some of the fuzz.

Thinking about that day, she could see the scenario so clearly. Like a picture in her head. The little girl dressed all in pink.

Mila had been feeling low that day, having another one of her “woe-is-me” pity parties. Wondering what the meaning and purpose to her life was. That day she’d been on scene with HPA at a downtown park. They’d found the Candyman’s latest victim on display. The vibrant redhead had been posed as a lounge singer. Wearing a glittering green cocktail dress with red pumps. Her hair had been styled in a fifties poodle haircut, tight sleek curls around her elfin face with a smooth part down the middle. She’d been gripping one of those big silver RKO mics, and on her middle finger was a large red candy ring.

The scene had been no different from the countless others she’d seen. The eyeballs had been taken out and lids sewn shut. The mouth twisted up into a macabre version of a smile.

But this time the killer had made one mistake. A mistake she’d instantly recognized. One that made Mila break out in a wash of cold sweat, made her realize it was time to pack up and go.

They’d found it on the cadaver’s fingertips: a faint blue smudge that’d smelled sweet. The techs had been baffled, murmuring whether the killer had somehow gotten a little clumsy this time, as he’d never left a mark or mar on the bodies before.

Mila had known the truth immediately.

The killer was the shadow. Whoever had been creating the macabre puppets was simply the shadow’s lackey. A way for the shadow to hide what it’d been doing.

The shadow was looking for her.

And now that she knew it, she knew she couldn’t go back home. Couldn’t stay in San Francisco any longer. It was too dangerous. When the techs had asked her if she’d gotten any feel or vision for the woman, whom she may have been, she’d simply shrugged and smiled, feigning exhaustion.

It hadn’t been true.

The moment she’d touched the woman’s hand she’d seen who she was. The first of the four victims she’d gotten a lock on. A Cal-Berkley coed visiting her boyfriend on holiday. Her name had been Sara Thorne and she would be greatly missed.

It was why she’d gone home, packed, and asked her boss’s mother if she could rent out one of her bed-and-breakfast rooms for the night. Mila had wanted to fly out of San Francisco, but the shadow was too smart. It was likely keeping tabs on flights, so she’d planned to leave by boat, but by that time of day, all boats were docked and wouldn’t set sail until the following morning. She’d had no choice but to stay one more day.

All the questions and the anxiety had been too much for her. She’d done something stupid, something her gran would have killed her for. Mila had gone out. She’d worn a disguise of a baggy sweater and pants, a ball cap on her head, and shades. Gone into a dump of a pub to drink some scotch just so that she could settle her nerves.

“O’Fallen?” he said, voice low and gently drawing her away from the memories.

She blinked and swallowed, coming back to the present.

“I was so stupid.” She snorted. “I was sitting in that filthy pub, tucked away in the deepest part of it, where there were hardly any lights, so that no one could really see me. Then a man sat about three seats over from me. You have to understand, I cannot control the visions. They simply come, or don’t; I cannot bring them forth no matter how much I want to,” she said, but she was hoping he understood that she was speaking of more than just that night.

His jaw clenched, an infinitesimal movement, before he nodded and moved deeper into her space. She sighed, gave him a crooked smile.

“Go on,” he gently urged.

She shrugged. “I saw a little girl, like I said. He was a drunkard; the call of whiskey was no match for that child. He’d hidden her in an alley behind the pub, given her some chalk to draw on the street with. I saw three men coming for her.”

“How do your visions work? Are they past or future?”

“Both. Sometimes the past, sometimes the future. I canna control what it is I see, as I said. It simply seems to depend on the individual and their circumstances. But you have to understand”—her voice drifted off—“I’ve seen visions like these before.”

“Of death?”

“Aye.” She nodded, heart trapped in her throat as she remembered what that little innocent would have gone through.

He tipped her chin up, then wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her close. “So why didn’t you let it happen with her? They all die in the end.”

The way he said it, not with scorn or malice, but a deep and honest sincerity, it touched her to her very soul. “We all do die, it’s true.”

Frenzy sighed. “But her death was different. It touched you. Made you reckless?”

Feeling safe and secure in his arms, she rested her head against his chest, taking another step into him, before nodding. His hands rubbed along her back, up and down, soothing her in a way very little else could. In some strange way, letting him hold her, opening herself up this way and being completely exposed, it made her feel stronger, not weaker. It was weird for her, this feeling of safety she felt whenever he was around. Like nothing bad could happen to her while he was here. Which was nuts because they’d been on the run the entire time. Nothing had really changed and yet, in some ways, it felt like everything had.

It was scary to feel like this, but it was even scarier to think it could all go away and she’d be alone all over again.

“She was innocent. If her da hadn’t taken her there, if he’d left her at home as he should have, that future would never have happened. I had a choice to make. I’d seen so much death in my life, I was tired of it. Something just snapped in me. I walked over to him, punched him in the head, and told him his daughter was in terrible danger and to go get her right away.”