“It is not uncommon for a person coming out of a coma to act differently,” Niko said flatly.
Leandra just shrugged. “She wasn’t acting different. She
was
different. She even smelled different. And her eyes had changed. I haven’t ever heard of a woman going into a coma with green eyes and coming out with blue eyes.”
“She is a witch, Leandra. Minor physical changes are easy for any accomplished witch,” Andreas said from the far end of the table. He glanced toward his twin before looking back at Leandra. “You should know how easy illusion is.”
Leandra just shrugged. “Easy, yes. And for a witch, it’s just as easy to see through an illusion as it is to cast one.”
“All these questions . . .”
Niko looked toward Vax and snapped, “If you do not be silent, you will leave.”
Vax grinned. “You going to make me, wolf-boy?” he asked. “You’re going to be too busy in a minute to even look at me.” He winced, reaching up to rub at his ear, as though somebody had yelled in it.
Under her breath, Kelsey muttered, “She wouldn’t.”
“Hell, yes, she would.” It was Malachi who spoke, and he was staring toward the door with an odd smile on his face.
Kelsey dropped her face into her hands as the door swung open. “Well, you wanted proof,” she said on a sigh.
The Council room was protected by wards just like those in the dungeon. Evil couldn’t enter of its own volition. It could be brought—the wards did not react when a feral was brought before the Council.
And they’d react if someone tried to cause harm while within the room. It had happened a few times in the past. The end results had been messy.
But alone? No. Evil couldn’t come here.
Niko was too busy scowling to say anything, but Andreas seemed a little more focused. “A feral witch can’t enter here,” Andreas murmured.
“No. These wards have been in place for nearly four hundred years now. It was my first year serving on the Council when Elizabeth and I first laid them down.” Nessa glanced around with a frown, one hand absently stroking the fat braid of blonde hair that lay over her shoulder.
“Who in the hell are you? How can you enter here?” Niko finally asked.
“Well, you seem to have so many questions. Perhaps you should ask somebody who has some real answers instead of speciulation,” she replied, glancing toward Kelsey with a slight smile. “Even if the speculation is fairly accurate.”
“Real answers?” Vax snorted from across the room. “You don’t have real answers. You can barely stay focused in this time for more than five minutes.”
Nessa smiled and glanced at Vax. “Perhaps you should wait until I’m a little less focused before you say things like that, dear,” she murmured. As she spoke, she reached up, touching her neck with the tips of her fingers.
Vax opened his mouth, but then he snapped it closed and just glared at Nessa. He shook his head as she turned away, and Kelsey heard a faint mumble, but she couldn’t understand what he’d said.
As Nessa moved closer to the raised platform where Council members sat, Malachi pushed back from his chair, offering it to the slender blonde. Kelsey heard a soft, indrawn breath but she wasn’t sure if it was Niko or Andreas. She didn’t bother glancing at either of the twins.
Nessa didn’t bother with the chair, though. She moved toward Kelsey, and Kelsey felt frozen under that penetrating blue gaze. “You always did see a little too clearly, didn’t you, Kelsey?”
KELSEY LET HERSELF INTO HER ROOM AND LEANED back against the door with a weary sigh.
If she had been hoping that things would get a little easier after the Council had reached a unified decision, well, she had been dead wrong.
Nessa was fractured. It was like there were two women trapped inside that body. There was the one Kelsey remembered, and then a younger one, a less secure, very sad, scared woman. A heartbroken woman.
In the two hours that they had spent speaking with Nessa, Kelsey had seen the witch slip back and forth between the two women easily a dozen times. The Council had accepted who she was; the execution had been rescinded, and word was being spread. Nessa was safe.
Safe, and totally shattered.
Whatever had happened had caused some severe psychological trauma, Kelsey figured. Trying to put back the pieces of a shattered witch sounded like a little more than Kelsey knew how to handle.
Especially since it seemed Agnes would have preferred if Kelsey had just let her die.
“This is a damn mess,” she muttered.
“Were you expecting anything less?”
The low voice sent a shiver down Kelsey’s spine even as her heart started slamming against her rib cage out of fear. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to let her see the dark shadow leaning against the wall near the window. As the shadow separated itself from the wall, Kelsey hit the light switch and stared at Chan.
“I really don’t want to see you right now,” she said. As she stared at him from across the room, she tested her resources. The fact that she had even had to check told her how low she was still running. It would take a few more days to rebuild the power she’d lost over the last few days.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” he replied, keeping away. “I will not take much time. But I cannot leave without settling this.”
Kelsey arched a brow. Her voice was wary as she asked, “Settling what? You know the order has been rescinded. And why.”
“Indeed.” Chan lowered his head in that odd, formal way of his. Long, raven-black hair was bound in a queue at the nape of his neck. That long tail of hair fell nearly to his knees, a remnant from his human life, she suspected. “That is why I am here. I’ve spoken with Dawn and Selene. It appears my sins go deeper than I had first imagined. And I owe you a great deal.”
Slowly, a little of the tension in her spine eased away. But still, she didn’t relax completely. This man had taken her a little closer to death’s edge than she was comfortable with. “You don’t owe me.”
Just get out . . .
There was a subtle shift in the air, and Kelsey’s skin went tight. That was the only warning she had before Malachi materialized in front of her, his big body standing between her and Chan.
“Now, sweet. He owes you what little his pathetic life is worth,” Malachi drawled.
Chan didn’t even blink. He just said in a level voice, “That is something I am well aware of, Malachi. I need only a moment.”
“You can’t have it. Get the hell out, and stay away from her. I don’t ever want to see you near her again.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes as she shoved away from the door and stalked over to poke Mal’s rock-hard bicep with her index finger. “Would you quit it? He screwed up. He knows it. I imagine that bothers
him
a hell of a lot more than you. Besides, Brendain is home to both of us. It’s ridiculous to think we aren’t going to have to interact at some point.”
Mal looked at her, his blue eyes glowing. Under the firm line of his upper lip, she saw the slight bulge of his fangs, a sure sign of just how pissed he was.
But it wasn’t Malachi who said anything. It was Chan.
“I will not be staying at Brendain,” Chan said quietly. “I have withdrawn from the Select. Selene and Connor will lead the Select in my place. I leave come nightfall.”
“Good,” Malachi said, peeling his lips back from his teeth in a mean smile.
Kelsey smacked his arm. “Would you shut up?” Looking at Chan, she asked softly, “Why are you leaving, Chan? Nobody expects that of you.”
Well, except Malachi
, she added silently. She could feel the hot punch of his rage; it settled around her like a cloak, and she had to focus to think through it.
“I expect it,” Chan replied. “I have dishonored my post, myself, my comrades. I do not deserve to remain here. But I could not leave without offering my deepest apologies. I owe you a blood debt. One day, I will repay it.”
He walked around them, leaving the room in silence.
Kelsey stood there, staring at the door. Yeah, she had known Chan had a rigid sense of honor. So why hadn’t she seen this coming?
“Did you know anything about this?” she asked Malachi softly.
“No. But I am not surprised. Chan’s honor rules him. He has shamed himself.”
Kelsey shifted, torn. She felt as though she should do something. Stop the vampire from leaving. Somehow.
Feeling Malachi’s eyes on her, she looked up and found him studying her with a slight smile. “You will not change his mind. He has to come to grips with this on his own.” He moved closer.
His booted feet nudged hers. Kelsey felt her breath freeze in her lungs as he reached up, lifting a curl from where it lay over her shoulder. “I do not want him near you. Not now. Not for a long time. Perhaps, in fifty or sixty years, I could look at him without wanting to rip out his throat.” He cocked his head, frowning a little. “Maybe not even then.”
Kelsey stared at him, mesmerized, as his hands came up and cupped her face, his fingers threading through her hair. His thumbs stroked along the line of her jaw as he angled her jaw up. “No. Not even in fifty or sixty years.” His mouth came down on hers, his tongue tracing the outline of her lips. “No. Not even then,” he murmured once more. “Open for me.”
“Malachi—”
“Shhh. Open. I have to taste you again, have to have you.”
His tongue pushed into her mouth, and Kelsey moaned, biting down gently. His hands slids up her back, pushing under the hem of her shirt. He leaned back, stripping her shirt away. Kelsey lowered her gaze, staring at his hands as they came up, cupping her breasts, stroking her nipples through the lace of her bra.
The hot, intense look in his eyes made her squirm, blood rushing to her cheeks. His gaze came up, meeting hers, and he smiled slowly. “I like the look of you,” he said, his voice low and rough.
The hot punch of lust stole her breath away, blood draining out of her head as he knelt in front of her. Big, rough hands plumped her breasts together, and he nuzzled her there. Kelsey reached up, gripping his shoulders. Under the dark cotton, she could feel the hard ridge of his muscles. She wanted to feel him— feel bare skin. She tugged on the cotton until he leaned back and tore it off. But when he reached for her again, Kelsey evaded his hands, moving around him. Behind him, she knelt down. The dark red of his hair spilled down his back, the locks straight, soft, silky. She gathered fistfuls of it in her hands, smiling a little. She’d dreamed of doing this . . .
Dreams
.
Her hands stilled for a second. The odd feeling of déjà vu settled over her. But then Malachi moved, pulling as though he was going to turn around. Kelsey murmured, “Be still.” Gathering the thick red mass of his hair, she pushed it over his shoulder until his back was bared.
Her breath, once more, lodged in her throat, a hard knot that made breathing painful. His back was covered in scars. They were faint, thin, narrow little lines, starting just below his shoulders, running down until the low-slung waistband of his jeans hid him from view. “These are old,” she murmured as she traced a finger along one that ran high along his shoulder.
One hand came up and covered hers, pressing it tight against his skin. “Don’t worry about them,” he muttered.
“Don’t worry?” There were so damned many of them. “You were whipped.”
A deep sigh escaped him, his big shoulders rising and falling. “Yes. A long time ago—before I was Changed. They don’t matter.”
But they did matter. “Who did it?”
Malachi laughed, pulling away from her. He turned around and caught her hands, bringing her close. “I don’t remember,” he muttered, lowering his mouth to hers.
She evaded him, though, ducking her head. “How can you not remember?”
“It was too long ago, love. Hell, I’ve forgotten more about my life than I remember. The things that don’t matter, I don’t remember.” He reached around, brushing his fingers against one of the scars. “These don’t matter.”
Malachi moved quickly then, his big body unfurling as he reached for her, catching her hands and taking her down to the floor. “This is what matters,” he muttered, settling his hips between her thighs and pushing against her. He lowered his lips to the delicate curve of her bicep. The flesh there was healed now, but judging by the look in his eyes, he could still see the ugly gash. “Keeping you safe matters. Seeing that nobody ever harms you again—that matters.”
Malachi shifted to his knees, and his hands slid under the low-slung waistband of her trousers. As he pulled them down, he murmured, “Getting you naked, spending the next few months in bed with you, that matters.”
His hands pushed her thighs apart, his eyes lingering on the juncture of her thighs. Then he lifted his gaze and stared up at her. He continued to hold her gaze as he lowered his head and licked her. Kelsey cried out, slamming her hands down on the gleaming surface of the wood. She arched up against his mouth.
Malachi pushed first one, then a second finger inside her. He twisted his wrist back and forth, slowly screwing his fingers in and out of her pussy. His tongue circled around over the hard bud of her clit, and then he caught it between his teeth, tugging gently.
That light pull had her screaming.
The sound of that broken, ragged scream echoed in Mal’s ears. “
That
matters,” he muttered, even though he doubted she could hear him. Her hips rocked up and down, and the silky, tight muscles of her sheath convulsed around his fingers. A rush of warm moisture flooded his hand, and he groaned against her. Pulling his fingers from her sex, he covered her with his mouth and pushed his tongue inside her pussy. She rocked up against his mouth, still locked in her climax.
He kneaded the firm muscles of her ass and continued to stroke her with his tongue, teasing the climax out.
“Mal—”
Lifting his head, he stared up at her. The muscles in her belly were still contracting, her breasts rising and falling raggedly. Her nipples were red, tight little buds, nearly the same rosy hue as her lips. Mal levered his body up, covering her. “This matters.” He captured one peaked nipple with his teeth and bit her lightly. He plumped her other breast with his hand, rolling that nipple back and forth.