Embrace of the Damned (34 page)

And, for as long as she could, she’d keep it that way.

Jessa hummed to herself as she opened her bedroom door. Broder was talking to Erik in the kitchen, one of the rare times he’d allowed her out of his sight. She entered the twilight-darkened room and sought the sheaf of papers on the table near the fireplace. Tonight she wanted to learn how to layer her new dragonfly talisman, even if it was only with two little parlor trick spells. They were called sun and moon charms, both harmless.

Somewhere behind her in the gloom, a man cleared his throat.

She stilled, all the hair on the back of her neck rising. Then she slowly turned. A man stood at the end of her bed. He wore an expensive-looking gray suit with a tastefully muted tie and a pair of black sunglasses. His dark hair was slicked back from his angular, pretty-boy face and his shoes were shiny and black and had probably cost a bundle. He looked like he had a huge ego.

She knew exactly who this was.

“Hello, Jessamine. So, I see you have my Broder thoroughly bewitched. I didn’t think that was possible.”

She narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin, her entire body tensing. She understood she was in the presence of a god, but she just couldn’t muster any respect. “Any woman would be bewitching to Broder after a thousand years of abstinence.”

He took a careful step toward her, putting her on edge. “No, sweet Jessa. One would think so, but one would be wrong. Broder is a much different animal. It could never have been just
any
woman for Broder. It had to be you.”

“Are you here to take him away from me?”

“I’m here to encourage you to leave him first.”

Her jaw locked. “No.”

“I
will
take him from you. He’s one of my best.” He smiled to show sharp white teeth and spread his perfectly manicured hands. “Do you really think I’m generous enough to let one of my men go, even for such a noble cause as true love?” Loki’s voice grew cold and hard. “This is not a fairy tale.”

“Gee, and I thought you were such a nice guy.”

“I am many things, but
nice guy
isn’t one of them.” He walked to the side, his polished leather shoes sounding on the polished wood floor. “As I was saying, it’s time for you to go. Your people need you and they want you. Broder is afraid to let you go, but there is no need. Your people mean you no harm.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I’m supposed to trust you?”

He spread his hands and grinned. “I am a god.”

“Exactly.” She paused. “I couldn’t go to the seidhr even if I wanted to.” She gave him a stern look. “My great-aunt told me to leave the keep and start walking, that their magick would guide me to them, but how would I avoid all the bloodthirsty Blight on my way to them?”

“Simple.” Loki’s perfect lips curled into a perfect smile. “I will protect you if you leave.”

“There you go with that trust thing again.”

His smile grew larger. “I want you out of Broder’s life.
I will protect you
from the Blight should you decide to make your way to the seidhr enclave.”

“No need. I’m not going. I’ll stay with Broder until the day you take him from me.”

“Just go, Jessamine. It will be easier on Broder if you leave before I pull him away from you. If you love him the way I know you do, you’ll do the right thing.”

“Maybe I think the right thing is to stay with him.”

The god smiled. “You know I’ll just rip him away anyway, Jessa, and you know, deep down, that every minute you spend with Broder corresponds directly to the weight of your heartache when he’s gone. Remember Brandon? It will be
so
much worse than that.”

And, just like that, Loki was gone.

The phone rang in the middle of the night; the phone that wasn’t supposed to ring, the one that wasn’t even plugged into the wall. Jessa rolled onto her back, the
ring ring
of the phone driving spikes through her head. It was amazing that Broder hadn’t woken up. He was right beside her.

She sat up. Or maybe it wasn’t amazing at all.

Pushing the blankets away, she left the comforting warmth of Broder’s side and answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, Jessa.” It was Carolyn again.

“What kind of mojo did you lay on Broder so he wouldn’t wake up?” Her voice sounded antagonistic.

“He doesn’t need to be a part of this.”

“Did you hurt him?”

“All we did was tune the sound of the phone to your ears only. Jessa, it’s time you left that house, left Broder, and started the next phase of your life. We want you to come to us.”

She chewed her lower lip and glanced at Broder in the bed. The thought of leaving him made her chest heavy and her blood flow sluggish. She couldn’t leave him. She was physically unable.

“It’s the best thing, for you and for him.” Carolyn paused, then she said softly, “You
know
it’s for the best.”

“Have you and Loki been talking?”

Carolyn said nothing for a long moment. Then finally, “Of course not.” Her voice was earnest, a bit offended. “Loki
has been good to us … with a few exceptions. All the same, Loki is not to be trusted. I don’t take advice from him.”

“So I shouldn’t, either.”

“No, you shouldn’t. Loki follows his own selfish agenda. Whatever he may have told you to do, you can know it fits his plans.”

“He told me to go to you.”

She paused. “Well, I hope you do come to us, but not because of Loki. He cares for no one but himself. The gods, they’re like humans with vast amounts of power. Loki is what you might call a psychopath.”

“Yay for psychopaths with vast amounts of power.”

Carolyn laughed. “There are more in this world than you might imagine.”

“That explains so much.”

“Come home, Jessa. Come now. Just step outside those gates. We’ll guide you the rest of the way.”

“What about the Blight? They’re hunting me.” She touched the scar on her neck. “If I leave the keep, they might attack. Loki said he would protect me, but I don’t believe him.” Just as she didn’t believe Carolyn.

“You will be safe. They won’t hurt you.”

Jessa snorted at her confidence, the memory of her recent ordeal extremely fresh in her mind. “How do
you
know? Do you have some special relationship with the B—” Jessa shivered and blinked, a strange sense of calm stealing over her body. Her skin tingled and the doubt she’d had slid away from her mind.

Why shouldn’t she believe Carolyn?

“
Trust us
, Jessamine. We’re your family.”

“Of course. I’m sorry, Carolyn. If you say I’ll be safe, I will be.”

“Good. Now come to us, Jessa.”

She studied Broder. He lay on his back in the bed, the sheets in a tangle around his waist and his gorgeous chest bared. His hair was strewn dark and tangled on the pillow and one strong arm was thrown up over his head. “I don’t know if I can leave him.”

“
You must.
Loki will take him from you soon. It will be easier to leave him now, without the tearful farewell. Better for Broder. You want what’s best for him, right? Because you love him.”

Another little shiver went through Jessa. Carolyn was right. Yet …

“I’ll think about it.” She set the telephone back into the receiver.

She sat on the edge of the bed and shivered, watching the rise and fall of Broder’s chest. She believed Carolyn was correct. It was time to go. Time to start the next phase of her life. Time to discover who she truly was.

She touched Broder’s chest and he didn’t stir. “I love you. I’ll always love you, Broder.” Loki was right that every moment she spent with him now directly corresponded to the weight of her heartache after they were parted. She imagined the moment it would happen and grief clouded the back of her throat. “I love you, but it’s time to let you go,” she whispered.

There was no denying that she’d need to eventually.

Jessa rose, found a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote a letter.

A half hour later, a heavy sensation in the center of her chest, she stepped beyond the gates of Broder’s keep, the extremely sharp sword she’d taken in a sheath and strapped crosswise at her back for easy access. She’d left Loki’s knife for Broder.

She had the assurance of a god and a witch that she would be protected from demons on this journey, but she was used to taking care of herself.

Immediately, a sense of where she needed to go filled her. It was as though an internal compass had started in the center of her chest, leading her in the right direction. Closing her eyes for a moment, she took a deep breath of the chill night air and stared down the dark, narrow road. Her mind strayed to Broder.
How could she leave him this way?
It wasn’t right. Both Carolyn and Loki had said this was the
best thing for Broder, but how could not saying good-bye be the best thing?

She took a step backward, away from the road.

Right after that moment of doubt slid through her mind, she had another odd shiver, this time stronger. Yes,
of course
this was the right thing to do. Better to cut ties with Broder like this, without an emotional good-bye, and before Loki could yank him away. She didn’t want their end to be on Loki’s terms.

Touching the comforting weight of the dragonfly pendant that nestled in the hollow of her throat, she stepped onto the next path she’d take in her life.

“I can feel her.” Thorgest turned from the large window of the library, where the huge full moon hung pregnant in the early morning sky. “She’s on her way here now.” He turned and stared pointedly at Roan. “You see?
That’s
how it’s done. I knew I should have had Carolyn do the job from the beginning.”

Roan shifted in the leather chair near the blazing fireplace. Across from him, Carolyn favored him with a smug smile. Roan curled his lip at her and glanced at Thorgest. “I think it’s risky. If she finds out she’s been manipulated, she’ll leave us.”

Thorgest narrowed his ice blue eyes at him. “Then I’m guessing the lass best never find out, ye ken?”

Carolyn’s eyes hardened. “We did the best thing for the girl. You know that, Roan. She needed to get out of that keep, away from that man. We can give her what she never had, a family.” She smiled poisonously. “Thorgest and I are her blood; we want what’s best for her.”

Yes, except Jessa had had a family—she’d had the woman Jessa thought of as her aunt Margaret, the woman that Abigail and Michael had wanted to raise her in the event of their deaths. Abigail had never wanted Jessa to have
this
family and Roan understood why.

“You want what’s best for
you
,” Roan retorted, his voice bitter. “Don’t deny it, Carolyn.”

Carolyn’s lip curled into a snarl. She leaned forward and opened her mouth, but Thorgest barked at her, “
Haud yer whist
, the both of ye!” Thorgest turned back to the window. “She’ll be here before dawn. Best be ready.”

The road stretched into the night, a gravel affair she would have expected to see in rural Alabama, not in the Scottish Highlands. Refuse scattered the road on either side in weed-choked heaps.

Her feet hurt from walking. Hitching rides had brought her close to this place, but she’d had to walk the last five miles of desolate road. Hitching wasn’t really her norm. In fact, this was the first time she’d ever done it in her entire life. It had just seemed like the
right thing to do
, as sure as the esoteric sense of direction she had now told her the enclave was somewhere down this road. Magick drove her, she was sure of it. It was a heavy guiding sensation in her chest, leading her to where she needed to be.

She was close to her destination.

But this last bit of the way was enough to make her want to turn back. She shivered a little and held fast. She’d come this far, it was just a bit farther.

She hovered at the mouth of the road, the wind whispering through the branches of nearby trees. Above her the moon was a huge, swollen ball, but clouds covered it sporadically, dimming its light.

If this had been a horror movie she was watching, she would have screamed at the heroine,
Run, run away!
But her great-aunt had led her here and down that path lay the answers to the questions that burned in her mind, and she would risk her life for those answers. She was willing to face the menace of this road and whatever lay at its end to clear up the murkiness of her life’s path.

Pulling the sword sheathed across her back as if for reassurance, she took her first step toward the end, both hands
tight on the handle. Her shoes crunched in the gravel as she made her way forward, chill air causing the hair at her nape to rise. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked, then another.

Midway down the trash-strewn narrow road, the handle of the sword pulsed against the skin of her palm. She jerked in surprise, nearly dropping it. Peering at the handle in the dim light she noticed it was marked with runes a lot like the ones she’d seen on the inside of Broder’s duster.