Lost Paradise (5 page)

“Dev—”

“He’s right,” Danial interrupted. “Your mom
and dad should meet him.”

“You told him about this outing,” I rebuked,
putting my hands on my hips. “Last night.”

“I may have let something slip,” Danial
admitted slowly.

“He invited me,” Devlin purred.

Danial looked at the ground.

“Good going, Danial,” Theo said
sarcastically. “You’re going to make her parents think Sar’s landed
herself smack in the worst crowd possible. They’ve accepted a lot
already with you and me. Now you’re going to announce that she’s
having your brother’s baby, oh and by the way, he’s a vampire,
too.”

“I’m just going to say I’m Danial’s brother,
for now,” Devlin placated. “When they know me a little better, I’ll
tell them I’m the father of one of her children and that we’re sort
of married.”

“You will not!” Theo growled loudly. “Sar’s
my wife, not yours—”

“She’s got on two pair of wedding rings,
Theo,” Devlin said, folding his hands across his chest. “And you
are not the only man wearing the matching partner.”

Devlin now wore a band on his right ring
finger. It was the same kind of band with the metals swirled
together that Danial and I still wore.

Theo’s eyes went wide. “You bas—”

I clapped my hand over his mouth. Theoron and
Elle didn’t need to be taught yet another swear word. “Stop,” I
said, then put down my hand. “He’s right, Theo. I’m bound to he and
Danial almost in the same way I’m bound to you.”

I turned to Devlin. “But I’m not “sort of
married” to you, Devlin. You could never be married to any one
woman, as you’ve told me before. We are Oathed, and you are not
going to say anything about it to my parents until I say it’s okay.
Do you understand?”

Devlin looked at me defiantly, his eyes
glowing, and didn’t answer.

“That’s not going to make it any easier,”
Danial said, sighing. “Your mom will notice our bands, Sar. She’s
sure to say something.”

“There is no easy way. We’ll try it Dev’s
way. For now.” I turned to take in both Danial and Devlin. “But no
innuendoes, nothing, from either of you,” I said, giving them the
look of death. “My mom will pick up on anything, no matter how
small. Don’t say anything.”

“All right,” Lash and Devlin assured.

They followed us to my parents’ house. My
mother came out to meet us, the perplexed look on her face
indicating she was curious as to who Lash and Devlin were. After
Theo, Theoron, and Elle had hugged my mother, Theo took the two
children inside. By that time, Danial was beside me.

“Tina, Chris, may I present my brother,
Devlin, and his bodyguard, Lash?” Danial said courteously.

Devlin kissed my mother’s hand. “It’s good to
meet you.”

Lash just nodded.

My stepfather shook their hands, eyeing Lash
like he was bad news.

“Is he a vampire, too?” my mother asked. “He
must be, if he’s your brother.”

Devlin whipped around and looked at Danial.
“They know about you?”

“Yes,” Danial said. “Lash is a were too, as
Theo is. But he is a snake, not a cougar.”

Lash looked over at Danial and said
mockingly. “Thanks, Danny. Appreciate it.”

My mother nodded like this was all normal.
“Come in,” she said, leading the way inside.

“You didn’t tell me her parents knew what you
were!” Devlin hissed low to Danial.

“You wanted to come crash our visit,” Danial
hissed back. “Part of crashing is not to know what to expect.”

“Thanks so much,” Devlin said
sarcastically.

The kids and Theo were already having pie. I
took an offered glass of wine from my mom.

“Want some scotch?” my stepfather said to
Danial, Devlin, and Lash.

“I’m driving tonight,” Danial said,
declining.

“I’ll have a small one,” Devlin said, smiling
politely. “I’m used to drinking wine, but I like single malts, on
occasion. Do you have any Laphroig?”

“Ten year or fifteen year?” my stepfather
said imperiously. “Cask strength, quarter cask, or regular?”

“Sweet,” Lash hissed with a wide smile. “I’ll
try the fifteen year and the cask strength. I’ve only ever had the
ten.”

My stepfather widened his eyes at Lash’s
snake fangs. Forcing a smile, he led them both over to the bar.

I took a long swallow of my wine.
Please,
God, let this evening go well.

* * * *

“I think it went well,” Danial ventured to me
hours later, as we sat on my couch, Ghost and Darkness sleeping at
our feet. “I’m sorry if you were ill at ease.”

“Dev was right to come. My mother will
tolerate him once she knows everything, even if she’s irritated
with me for having his child. She’ll love my babies, of
course.”

“I’m glad there wasn’t a scene. I was sure
your mom would find out about ‘everything,’ as you put it so
well.”

“She confronted me in the kitchen,” I
admitted. “She was curious about why they came tonight, but never
before now.”

“What did you tell her?”

“That we couldn’t bring Lash before because
he can’t hide what he is. That he was Dev’s best friend, and we
were waiting until they accepted Danial and Theo to have your
family visit.”

Danial nodded. “Well done, even if Lash isn’t
what I consider family. What did Devlin want? He followed us to
your house to kiss you goodnight.”

“To assure me that he would behave himself,
that he liked my parents, and that he was looking forward to them
becoming part of his family. Nothing bad.”

“Good. Rest,” Danial said, holding me close.
“You need to keep up your strength, Sar.”

“I’m just glad we got a vacation before you
got so busy.”

“Me, too,” he said, satisfied. He hugged me
close. “Me, too.”

* * * *

Two more weeks passed quickly.

On the last day in March, I put the finishing
touches on the final guest room at Hayden. Putting down the brush,
I surveyed the room.

Pride washed through me. I’d taken my time
doing the guest bedrooms, and all had come out gorgeously. Each
room had patterns on the ceilings, done with rollers. While none of
them were as elaborate as Danial’s night sky ceiling with all of
its constellations, each one was eye-catching. The purple room had
blue, blue-violet, and light gray on the ceiling in swirls. The
orange room, a.k.a, the flames room, had a similar one with red,
yellow, and light orange on the ceiling. I’d done others as well:
green with a gold and shades of brown and tan ceiling, and dark
gray, with a blue sky and clouds on the ceiling, similar to the one
painted on Elle’s ceiling years ago. At Devlin’s request, I’d done
the last four rooms in shades of gray, with glazed ceilings all in
white and gold and silver.

That had left one final room, this one. For
my finale, I had gone all out, doing the walls in metallic silver,
with glitter all over the ceiling. When the overheard light was
lit, the entire room shone. Today, I’d finished up the last of the
pearl trim.

Congratulating myself on a job well done, I
washed my brush in the adjoining bathroom. This afternoon, after
lunch, I’d get started on Hayden’s gardens. There wasn’t too much
time left before spring. And being pregnant, the more time went by,
the less and less I’d be able to do. Thankfully that restriction
wouldn’t apply to baking and sewing.

Serena and I had become good friends in the
few weeks I’d known her. She was a decent baker now, so it was on
to a new skill. To my dismay, no one had eaten the baked goods she
left out for general consumption. I guessed that the other women
who lived at Hayden had told their mates not to, and consoled
myself with her assurances that some of her patrons who had been
privately gifted with her creations had given her a lot of praise
for her efforts.

Our first sewing project was going to be
making catnip cat toys for Phantom, not that he needed more
spoiling. Having never visited a grocery store, Devlin had not
known there were such things as cat treats. Now Phantom had a row
of treats in a special plastic case.

I smiled. Phantom was an odd cat. He curled
at the bottom of Devlin’s bed each day, but spent his nights
someplace else. Though he’d always been sweet and loving with me,
he was destructive, destroying the cat treat bags, chewing them
apart to get at the treats, prompting the special plastic case. His
temperament was similar to Dev’s. Maybe that was why Dev loved him
so much.

I packed up the painting paraphernalia, and
put it to the side. I’d carry it down to one of the storage rooms
tomorrow. Taking my cell phone out of my pocket, I dialed Lash.

As usual, he answered right away. “Lunch?” he
hissed querulously.

“Lunch,” I affirmed. “You ready?”

“I’ll meet you there. Don’t hurry; I’ll be a
second or two finishing up.”

“Okay. Five minutes?”

“More like two,” he hissed.

“Sure. Bye.”

I hung up, then caught sight of myself in the
mirror. I had paint in my hair, a few silver streaks near one ear
and also at the crown of my head. I put my fingertips to the paint,
which was dry.

“Nice. I’ll have to scrub it out later.”
Wincing, I shook out my hair from its clip and rubbed my scalp. It
hurt from having my hair up so long. “I need a hair appointment,
too,” I added under my breath, then headed for the door.

Just as I grasped the knob, The Lust reared
up within me.

Chapter
Three

Lash.

I wanted Lash.

Devlin was sleeping upstairs, but I didn’t
want him. He wouldn’t drink me down like water. He hadn’t taken any
of my blood for weeks now. But Lash likely didn’t know that he
shouldn’t. If I told him to, he would.

I threw open the door, and bolted into Kev in
the hallway, knocking him off balance. “Sorry,” he said, then did a
double take at my wanton expression.

“Where is Lash?” I drawled, giving him a
smoldering look.

His eyes widened. “I’ll take you to him,” he
said, grabbing my hand.

He walked fast down the hallway toward the
ballroom, pulling me along after him. Pushing through the doors
with a shove of his hand, he started across the wide hardwood
floor.

I registered my surroundings, scanning
eagerly for Lash. The cracks in the walls had been fixed.
Scaffolding had been erected to reach the ceiling cracks, but it
was empty. There was no one here, least of all the person I was
looking for. Fury rose up in me in an all-encompassing wave.

“Where is he?” I snarled.

“Lash is upstairs,” Kev said quickly,
dropping my hand. He turned and ran for the door.

I ascended the stairs, and began looking
around. There were a lot of supplies up here, but no Lash.

God damn it, I need him! He must have left
for the kitchen. I would have to go after him. When I found
him…

“Sarelle,” a voice called teasingly.

I turned around. Kev and Vince were there at
the top of the stairs, blocking them.

“Where is Lash?” I hissed angrily. “He’s not
up here, like you said!”

Vince and Kev didn’t reply. They spread out,
and began to advance toward me slowly. Both of them were big men,
burly and muscular, and the way they moved was meant to be
menacing. If I had been in my right mind, I would’ve been afraid,
would have known immediately what they were planning.

Instead, I was pissed off. “Get out of my
way!” I shouted, grabbing a claw hammer from the stack of tools
beside me. “Now!”

“We just want to give you what you need,
Baby,” Vince growled eagerly. “We won’t hurt you, if you let us
have you—”

I dashed between them. They lunged for me as
one. I hit Vince solidly in the teeth with my hammer. The entire
front five caught the impact, breaking several as he let out a
scream more surprise than pain.

Kev grabbed me around the waist. I kicked him
hard in the balls. He groaned and went down hard, holding
himself.

I sauntered down the stairs in search of
Lash, full of myself. I held tightly to the hammer, liking the
weight of it in my hard.
Hitting Vince had felt good. I liked
the shriek he’d made when I hit him. Maybe I would get a chance to
swing my hammer again on the way to the kitchen. If Lash didn’t
behave, he could have some of this, too…

I’d forgotten there were two sets of stairs,
that the men I’d hurt were werebear, not human. As I reached the
last five stairs, Vince was suddenly there before me, his partly
healed teeth bared.

“I want Lash, not you!” I snarled at him, and
swung.

He evaded me easily. “Grab her!” Vince
hissed.

Kev, who had come down silently behind me,
grabbed hold of me.

I kicked him, but he was ready, turning his
body to protect himself even as he tore the hammer out of my
grasp.

“You Fuck!” I hissed. “Release me!”

“No more,” Kev ordered, tossing the hammer
away. “Now behave—”

“What a joke!” I laughed. “As if either of
you could satisfy me—”

Vince slapped me hard. The blow rocked my
head backward, the force of it enough to break The Lust’s hold over
me.

Instantly recognizing the danger I was in, my
fear crashed down over me like ice water. I went still in Kev’s
arms. “Let me go. I’m okay now. I’m sorry about hitting you.”

“Not a chance,” Vince said, growling. “We’ve
waited a long time for this, Sar. Hold her.”

Vince began fumbling with my pants, growling
softly in anticipation. I screamed. Kev put his hand over my mouth,
stifling me, as Vince tried to slide my jeans over my hips. Lucky
for me, I’d squeezed my vain ass into my skintight stretch jeans.
They clung to me like a second skin as he tried to pull them
off.

“We were all told to stay away from you,” Kev
growled furiously in my ear. “Dev decided he loved you, so we were
just supposed to forget how you shot six of us dead, how your
boyfriends killed another eight of us over at Danial’s house that
same night. But that doesn’t fly with me.”