“No.” Jonas didn’t like where this was going. “You think that Phillip is the one who stabbed me? Why would he have reason to do that?”
“I don’t know.” Torren glanced down at Nicholas’s sleeping form and shook his head. “I think it’s more important than ever that Nicholas recovers his memories, though. I think Phillip will play a bigger part in this than you realize.”
Jonas resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Phillip is dead. Even if he’s the one who attacked me that night, it has no relevance now. Nor does it have anything to do with why Nicholas won’t accept our mating.”
Though he bobbed his head, Torren looked concerned as he turned and settled back in his seat. “Let’s hope you’re right.”
* * * *
“You hate me,” Nicholas mumbled as his stomach rolled and sweat poured from his face. “What did I do to make you hate me so much?”
Jonas chuckled and bumped their shoulders together. “Suck it up, ya hotdog.”
Nicholas wasn’t certain, but he thought Jonas might have just called him a weenie. Maybe the Enforcer was right. Nicholas felt exhausted. His stomach cramped, his temples ached, and he’d have been happy to just curl up and sleep for the next week. “Thank you, by the way.”
“What are you thanking me for?” Jonas turned the page of the book he was reading and didn’t look up at Nicholas.
“Thank you for taking care of me earlier. I appreciate it.” Jonas still didn’t look up from his book, but his hands started to tremble, and his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed hard. Then he cleared his throat and squirmed in his seat. “It wasn’t a big deal.” Nicholas bobbed his head to avoid a confrontation, but it
was
a big deal. He didn’t know if the deflection of gratitude was typical behavior for the vampire or not, but it made sense. It was a pretty common trait in alpha males like Jonas.
Nicholas thought back over the past few months, but nothing really stuck out in his mind besides Malakai. While his feelings for the smaller man were still intense, Nicholas no longer trusted them.
He’d remembered something out in that cold water. It wasn’t a lot, and he hadn’t been able to follow it to its completion, but it had given him proof of what Jonas had been trying to tell him from the beginning.
“Jonas?”
“Hmm?” Some of the tension seemed to have faded from Jonas while Nicholas had been thinking. “What is it?”
“Malakai isn’t my mate, is he?”
Very slowly, Jonas closed his book and settled it in his lap as he looked up to meet Nicholas’s eyes. “No, Nicky, and I’m sorry. I know this has to be so confusing for you, but he’s not. Whatever you feel for him isn’t real.”
Nicholas nodded once. “He really doesn’t want me, right?” Taking Nicholas’s hand, Jonas squeezed it in comfort. “He’s already mated, and he doesn’t know you. It’s not like he hates you, though, if that’s what you’re asking. Everyone is just worried.” It wasn’t really funny, but Nicholas couldn’t stop the snort that escaped him. Somehow, he doubted that Malakai’s mates were all that worried about him. They were probably cheering for his death. Not that he could blame them. He wanted them out of the picture just as much. Malakai belonged to
him
!
Nicholas shook his head and groaned. Logically, he knew that wasn’t right, so why couldn’t he shake those feelings? Maybe he just wanted it to be true. He’d walked the earth for over two hundred years, and as far as he could recall, he’d never found his missing half.
Had he?
“Do I have a mate? Is there someone out there waiting for me?”
Jonas went still again and retracted his hand. “You’ve never claimed a mate.”
The words and tone sounded true enough, but Nicholas got the sense there was more to the story. He was so tired of asking questions and getting only partial answers. So much was missing, replaced by things he didn’t understand, and he didn’t even know who he was anymore.
According to Jonas, he wasn’t behaving like himself, as though some crucial part of his personality had been altered. That brought him back to logic and rationalization.
Logically,
there was no way he could have defeated his adversary and gained possession of his coven as he was now. That man he had been was lost to him, and the person he was now couldn’t lead a dog on a leash.
The fasten seatbelt light blinked on with a ding, and the pilot came over the speakers to announce that they were beginning their final approach. Nicholas hated flying, but he hated landing so much more.
Digging his fingers into the padded armrests, he closed his eyes and breathed through his nose while he reminded himself that they wouldn’t just fall out of the sky.
“Nicky, open your eyes.” Jonas had a smile in his voice as he spoke—the bastard. “Everything is worse in the dark.”
“We exist in the dark. Bite me.”
“Ooh, kinky.”
Nicholas jerked around to stare open-mouthed at Jonas. “You’re making fun of me.”
“Yep.” Jonas folded his hands in his lap, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes. “Though, I will bite you if you’re into that kind of thing. I live to please.”
A clear picture of Jonas sinking his fangs into his neck settled into Nicholas’s mind. His cock began to swell, his stomach fluttered, his neck tingled, and a shiver raced up his spine. Then just as quickly as it came, the thought disappeared, replaced by a blurry image of Malakai’s face and a stabbing pain in his temples. The world around him started to spin, and his stomach flopped over, threatening to send bile up his esophagus.
Nicholas fell forward and almost smashed his face on the seat in front of him, but Jonas grabbed him and pulled him back just in time.
“Whoa, man. We’ll be on the ground in a few minutes. Just try to relax and hang in there.”
“Not that,” Nicholas gasped before grabbing his head and groaning in pain.
“Shit! What did you remember?”
Jonas reached out for him and the minute Nicholas felt the hand touch his shoulder, blinding, white-hot pain exploded in the center of his forehead. He screamed like he was dying, because really, that’s how it felt. At the same time, he felt like he was just on the brink of something, and if he could power through the pain, he’d be able to grasp it.
“Torren!” Jonas yelled while he fumbled with his seatbelt.
“No.” Nicholas grinded his teeth together and shook his head. The last thing he needed was another witch pilfering around inside his head.
“Stop being a stubborn asshole,” Jonas chastised with a growl.
First he was a whining wimp, and now he was a stubborn asshole.
Some middle ground would have been nice.
“Torren, get your ass over here!” Jonas started frantically poking Nicholas in the eyes, cheeks, and nose. Well, that wasn’t his intention.
He was most likely trying to wipe away the blood gushing from Nicholas’s nose, but his shaking hands weren’t proving very successful at the task.
“Just stop.” The pain was beginning to subside, and Nicholas felt the insane urge to laugh at Jonas’s near hysteria. “It’s just blood.”
“It’s more than that, and you know it.”
“Well, can you at least stop trying to poke my eye out?” Jonas huffed and flopped down in his seat, looking very put out.
“I guess this means you’re feeling better.”
“I’m fine, though you make a shitty nurse.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You’re not dead, and you didn’t throw up. What more do you want?”
“It would be nice if my head didn’t explode every time my dick got hard. That could make for a pretty awkward social life.”
Jonas eyed him keenly. “You were hard? What were you thinking about?”
Nicholas let his eyes travel down Jonas’s body while his mind supplied images of the two of them naked and writhing together. His dick twitched, pain blasted him between the eyes, and then everything went black.
* * * *
This was such a bad idea. After Nicholas had passed out yet again, Jonas had done everything he could think of besides tie the man to his seat to keep him on the plane. The stubborn asshole wasn’t having any of it, though.
“Relax,” Nicholas said with a crooked grin. “This was your idea, remember? I was perfectly happy back in Wyoming.”
“Get the man a drink and stop being such a killjoy,” Raven added, slapping Jonas on the shoulder hard enough to make him stumble a few steps. The Enforcer looked like a kid in a candy store as he tried to take in everything at once around the casino.
Jonas just wanted to leave. Nothing was working out the way he planned it. Every time Nicholas came within reaching distance of remembering something, he’d start bleeding and black out. God, Jonas was a craptacular mate.
Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, but when he turned to investigate further, nothing seemed to be amiss. He didn’t think he imagined it, though. With the multitude of people milling around, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise to feel like he was being watched. It made him edgy, though, and he didn’t like it.
“Drink this and try to lighten up,” Torren said in his ear, shoving a drink into his hand. “We’re supposed to be having fun.” Jonas tossed back the drink, wincing when it burned his throat.
Jack and Coke was definitely not his drink of choice. That didn’t stop him from pushing the glass back at Torren and signaling for another one, however.
“Now, it’s a party!” Torren laughed, pounded him on the back, and disappeared toward one of the bars again.
Nicholas should have been the one complaining and wanting to leave, but he had the same shit-eating grin on his face as Raven. The two had their heads bent together, discussing which game they should lose at first and laughing like a pair of hyena.
“Roulette, definitely roulette,” Raven was saying.
“Nah, let’s head over to the craps table.”
“Blackjack?”
“Poker?” Bannon Murphy asked, sidling up beside them. He’d been fairly quiet since picking them up at the airstrip, but he looked in high spirits now.
Jonas groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a feeling if he let them, they’d stand there and go through every casino game ever invented. “How about a drink to get started?” he suggested, thankful when they all perked up and nodded eagerly.
Well, at least Nicholas was smiling and seemed to be having a good time. That was kind of the purpose, in a half-ass, roundabout way. Jonas didn’t know how it was going to help his memory at all.
He really should have thought this one through a little better. It wasn’t like he could recreate the man tossing his cookies in some lady’s purse.
Then again, it was Vegas. Stranger things had been known to happen in Sin City.
As the night dragged on, Jonas grew more depressed. Nicholas was having the time of his life, but it wasn’t doing anything to help him regain his memories. Hell, he’d inquired about Malakai twice since they’d arrived.
When it was time for them to leave, he and Bannon had to practically carry Nicholas to the car while Raven and Torren stumbled along behind them. The ride back to the plane was filled with lots of laughter and excited shouting, but Jonas sat quietly in the front seat and stared out the window. Why had he ever thought he could do this?
The SUV pulled to a stop beside the plane, and Jonas hurried around to help his mate out of the backseat before he attempted it alone and ended up on his face. Supporting most of Nicholas’s weight, Jonas walked him up the steps and leaned him against the wall while Bannon hurried past them to readjust the seats so that they formed a small, cot-like bed.
Jonas wanted to be gentle, but Nicholas was just too big, and he ended up more or less dropping his mate on the cot. Nicholas just laughed and closed his eyes while Jonas worked to remove the man’s boots.
“Sing me a lullaby.”
Jonas snorted and rolled his eyes. “You’re drunk. Go to sleep before you embarrass yourself.”
“You’re kind of cute, even if you are a little blurry.” Nicholas chuckled again and rolled to his side. “Why are you so nice to me?” Because he couldn’t stop himself, and he doubted Nicholas would remember when he woke up anyway, Jonas bent and kissed his mate on the temple. “Because I love you,” he whispered.
“You used to sing,” Nicholas mumbled. “Why don’t you sing anymore?”
Jonas tilted his head to the side and frowned. He hadn’t sung to Nicholas since they were teenagers. “You remember that?”
“You had on a white shirt with blue buttons.” Nicholas squeezed his eyes closed and groaned. “You…you said you wrote that song just for m—”
His mate’s body went rigid, and he began to scream. It lasted only seconds, but to Jonas it felt like forever. Blood dripped from his nose, and a small trickle ran from his ear and down the side of his neck.
Then he went silent, slumped back to the mattress, and didn’t move again.
“Would you sit your ass down? We’re not going anywhere tonight.”
“Jonas, I’m fine.” Nicholas huffed, obviously exasperated. “I took a power nap, and now I feel great.”
“A nap? You took a fucking nap? You passed out! You screamed like I was cutting your balls off, and then you fainted! You’ve been asleep for almost twenty-four hours!”
“I did not faint.”
Jonas waved his hands around like a crazy person as he stomped about the plane. “You know, you picked a hell of a time to show that McCarthy stubbornness. I need you to listen to me, Nicky.” He stopped right in front of his mate, grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook him. “This is dangerous. It’s not normal to bleed from various cranial orifices.”
Nicholas lifted both eyebrows, crossed his arms over his chest, and smirked. “If you’re finished insulting me, I feel like a drink.”
“You stubborn, mule-headed, obstinate son of a bit—”
“Now you’re just being redundant.”
“Nicholas!”
“Call me Nicky.” Nicholas winked at him and sauntered toward the front of the plane.
It was a complete one-eighty from the frightened and withdrawn man Jonas had started the trip with, and it had only been three days.
Granted, a lot of things had happened in that short amount of time, and Jonas felt like he was still playing catch-up while Nicholas was strutting around like he was two steps ahead of the game.