Dark Solace (24 page)

Chapter
Eight

Devlin carried me out of the room, and down
the stairs to the parking lot. I wanted to protest that I could
walk, but he was taking things so well I thought it unwise to rock
the boat.

Instead of just Titus, both Titus and Lash
were waiting for us next to Lash’s truck.

“You sure you can take the whole thing?” Lash
said to Titus, sneering.

“Shut up and drive,” Titus spat back at
him.

Lash and Titus got into the truck cab. Devlin
boosted me up in the truck’s backseat, and then climbed up after
me. Lash drove into a secluded spot, and then suddenly, we were
parked outside Hayden. Lash drove in through the gates, and parked
in the garage. Then we all got out, and went into the kitchen.

Serena was there cutting up freshly baked
bread. She looked at Dev, then cast me a frightened glance. Then
she saw Lash and her eyes went wide.

“Go upstairs,” Devlin said calmly. With a
last worried look at me, Serena went.

Devlin turned to me. “Do you need anything to
eat?”

“I ate already,” I said with a blush,
remembering the French fries and ketchup kisses.

Devlin gave a long-suffering sigh. “I should
have guessed.”

“Enough pissing and moaning,” Lash hissed,
following Titus downstairs. Devlin and I descended also into
Titus’s basement study. Titus settled in a chair. Devlin also sat
in one, and pulled me down into his lap. Lash sat in another one of
the chairs, sprawling indolently sideways.

“Well, what should we do?” Devlin said.

“About what?” I asked.

“Lash is not only not dead, Sar, he’s young
again,” Devlin said flatly. “Your blood did it. We need to decide
how best to cover it up. Or else every single aged and/or dying
creature is going to want you. It will make the Rulers’ desire for
you seem like nothing.”

Horror eclipsed every other waking thought. I
clutched him.

Dev’s arms tightened around me. “We’ll keep
you safe, Love,” he murmured softly. “But we have to think of
how.”

“I have no ideas,” Lash said with a shrug.
“Titus said there was nothing that could have been done to save me,
that he had drawn out my life as long as he could.”

Devlin looked at Titus. “Is that true?” he
said in a deadly tone.

Titus looked at Devlin. “No,” he said
bluntly.

Lash was on him in a minute, Titus was
holding him back, Lash’s knife point over his heart. Devlin
struggled to get up, losing seconds as he got out from under
me.

“You know that won’t kill me!” Titus rasped,
struggling to hold back Lash’s knife with one hand, and Lash’s
fangs with the other. Venom dripped from them, black droplets
falling steadily.

“It’ll hurt a lot!” Lash hissed furiously.
“And I want to hurt you, you fuck! You were going to let me die! I
almost did die! Sar risked her life—!”

“Stop!” Devlin shouted, shoving Lash off
Titus.

Lash hissed menacingly. He backed off, but he
didn’t put his knife away.

“I could’ve saved you, sure!” Titus said
angrily. “But only by killing an older vampire at least Devlin’s
age, if not older. It was the older blood in Sar that saved you,
Lash!”

“Why not tell me, you ass?” Devlin hissed,
baring his fangs. “I would’ve given my blood gladly!”

“All of it?” Titus said, raising his
eyebrows. “I’d have needed all of it, Devlin. You ready to
die?”

Devlin looked at Lash then, in his gold eyes
something close to Danial’s soft look for me. “No,” he said softly.
“But I would’ve given all that I could, and I’d have gotten the
rest from Danial, somehow.”

“I’d have also needed another weresnake of
Lash’s type, one very young,” Titus rumbled. “No older than twenty
or so. The younger the better—”

“A child?” I said in horror.

Titus nodded. “Lash needed something to jump
start his regenerative system. The blood of a younger weresnake,
mixed with older vampire blood and some of mine would have stopped
his decline, and made him well. But even that wouldn’t have made
him younger like this, Devlin.”

“Even with more demon blood from you?” Lash
hissed meaningfully. “Say, all of it?”

Titus growled low.

“Enough!” Devlin said angrily. “Fighting will
get us nowhere. We are doing this for Sar. Shut up and think!”

“We can say I used some faerie blood, too,”
Titus said slowly. “That would account for the youth. I have some
of Leri’s.”

Just why he had some of his lover’s blood
lying around in his lab I didn’t want to know.

“Would that have done it?” Devlin asked.

“Yes,” Titus said, looking at him with red
eyes. “It should’ve worked. I can’t say for how long, but probably
for at least a decade or two.”

“Then you will research it well, Titus,”
Devlin said, carefully enunciating the words. “And the next time
Lash needs his battery jumped, he is going to tell me—”

Lash nodded once, and folded his arms across
his chest.

“—
and then you are going to make
whatever you need to, do whatever you need to, in order to keep him
alive,” Devlin finished, his eyes were glowing red hot like coals.
“And anything he ever asks you from now on, you are always to tell
him the truth! Say you understand me, Titus.”

Titus nodded.

Devlin turned to me. “Sar, I’ll have to tell
Danial. I’ll need him to be a part of this, to account for the
blood we would supposedly need. But you will say nothing of this,
any of it, not to anyone else—”

“She is going to tell Theo,” Titus rumbled
sarcastically. “She’s his wife, Devlin. I’m glad I spent so much
effort duping you all.”

Devlin rubbed his eyes in exasperation. “You
will, won’t you?” he said quietly to me. “You always tell him. Even
when you know it would be easier for us all if you didn’t.”

I went and sat down in the chair, and closed
my eyes. “Dev, give me a minute.”

“Sar—” Devlin said

I held up my hand. “Leave me with Titus for a
moment,” I repeated.

Devlin looked at me strangely, but he
motioned to Lash, and they left. Titus remained where he was. I
said nothing, just looked into space.

“Sar, are you mad?” Titus rumbled gently. “I
did what I did to protect you.”

“Save it,” I said softly. “I didn’t ask you
to stay here to talk about that.”

“What then?” Titus asked, curious.

“Can anyone outside this room hear us?”

Titus said some familiar sounding words, and
a glow surrounded us, and then faded. “Not now. What do you have to
say to me that can’t be overheard?”

I swallowed hard. “I want you to sever the
bond between Theo and I.”

“What?” Titus roared.

“You heard me,” I said simply. “Sever the
bond between us.”

“I can’t,” Titus said. “It can’t be
broken—”

“Don’t give me that shit!” I said, my green
eyes full of anger. “If I’ve learned anything today, I’ve learned
that there is always a way. And I’m betting you know one.”

Blackness boiled out of Titus then, evil as
Hell and just as rancid. “You are not giving up your husband and
child for that scum—”

“I’m doing it for Theo!” I screamed at him.
“He loves me so much, and I’ve put him through hell for the past
year, Titus! But so long as he’s bound to me, he’ll stay. And I
want him to be free of me, because I want him to be happy. And he’s
never going to be happy sharing me with anyone.”

Titus relented, looking crestfallen.
“Sar—”

“No, Titus,” I said, my words rough and
uneven with grief. “I’ve tried it now for months. Theo’s tried it.
And it’s not working. Theo can’t even share me with Danial very
well, and now I’m back with Devlin, it’s just going to be the same
thing all over again. I can’t do it anymore. And I’ve decided I
don’t want to do it anymore. I want my life back, Titus.”

I raised my eyes and looked him square in his
red ones. “I have to be with Danial. And I have to be with Devlin.
But I was with Theo just because I loved him. I love him enough to
let him go, so he can find what he needs with someone who can just
be his.”

Titus came to me and hugged me. Heat
enveloped me, and for once I let myself be roasted, as it took away
from how awful I was feeling, thinking about Theo with someone
else.

“Sar, you love him. You shouldn’t leave
him.”

“I’m not leaving him. But break the bond
between us, so that if he chooses to leave me after I tell him what
I’ve done, he can go.”

“I can’t break it that fast. I can break it
in layers, over some months. But it was built over years, and
that’s the best I can offer. Breaking it is going to be hard
anyway. There may be a backlash, where he ends up hating you. And
with the way his temper can be—”

I closed my eyes and hugged him, willing the
heat of him to ease the pain of his words.

“Please do it. I want him to be free to
leave, if he decides to.”

Titus drew back from me. “Sar, just because I
do this doesn’t mean he’ll leave you. There is no bond between you
and Danial like you have with Theo, but Danial loves you more than
life.”

“Maybe he won’t anymore, after he finds out
about Lash and I,” I said bitterly. “It’s going to be so fun
’fessing up to him.”

“I forgave Leri, and her crime was much
worse,” Titus rumbled, hugging me again. “He’ll forgive you,
Sar.”

I hugged him, wishing he was right. But I
knew Theo all too well.

* * * *

Devlin had Titus teleport Lash, Danial, and I
to Danial’s home. We arrived in the great room about three a.m.
Devlin told Lash to wait outside for a moment, and Titus
disappeared instantly, teleporting back to Hayden. Venus was there
with only the bears and Serena, after all, and none of us liked the
idea of her being unprotected.

“Danial?” Devlin called, gripping my hand in
his.

Danial came out of his study, and looked down
at Devlin, but didn’t see me. “Dev?” Danial said questioningly.
“Why aren’t you at Hayden? Is Sar okay?”

“It’s me,” Devlin said quickly. “Are you
alone?”

“Yes,” Danial said, giving him an odd look.
“The kids are out with Terian—” Then he saw me and his face lit up.
“Did he tell you?” Danial said excitedly, coming down the stairs
with a grin. “Samuel and Perseus are pleased with the information.
They said that they’ll let you live out your life with us, Sar.
It’s so—”

Danial saw my expression and froze on the
stairs. “What is it?” he said, as much fear as I’ve ever heard in
his tone. “Your heart is racing, Sar—”

“She’s worried you won’t love her,” Devlin
said, rubbing his eyes. “When you find out what she did.”

Danial came to me and hugged me. “I’ll always
love you, Sar. There is nothing—”

“Lash!” Devlin called loudly. “Get in here,
please!”

Danial went still, and then recoiled back
from me. “Sar, tell me you didn’t—”

“She saved me with her blood,” Lash said,
striding into the room. “I was dying, and she came to me and saved
me.”

Danial looked at me with narrowed eyes. Then
he cut his eyes to Lash and did a double take. “You are young!”
Danial said, his voice strangled. “How—?”

“It was her blood, something in her blood,”
Devlin said quickly. “Titus said it was also because there was so
much vampire in Lash, from the potion he’s been taking for years
with my blood. Her blood saved him.”

“He must have almost drained her then,”
Danial growled, his eyes red. “You filth, that you would dare
to—!”

“Shut up!” I said harshly.

Danial was so shocked he cut off. All three
of them looked at me.

“I gave my blood to him willingly, along with
my body,” I said, my words echoing in the room. “And I’m tired of
everyone giving him shit, like he forced me to or something. Of all
my lovers, he’s the only one who never demanded anything of me, or
took anything from me without my consent. The only one Danial,
including you! So knock it off!”

Danial looked at me, then took in a long deep
breath. “I should have heeded Lash’s warning to me those months
ago,” he said, every word filled with pain. “I didn’t. None of us
thought of him as more than a temporary annoyance. And we gave him
just enough room in our jealousy and fighting over you that he
slipped into your heart—”

“Stop it,” I said, moving away from him.
“It’s not like that.”

“Isn’t it?” Danial whispered, upset. “You
risked your life to save him. You know what he is, what kind of man
he is. You knew what he felt for Theo, and for me, and how we felt
about him. And you went anyway, leaving your children without a
second thought—”

“Don’t disrespect her, you fucking vampire,”
Lash hissed. “Or I’ll knock you through that wall.”

“Get out,” Danial said, baring his fangs.
“You are banned from this house, Snake.”

I’d already had enough tonight. I wasn’t
going to listen to anything more from Danial. I glared at him, and
then went to teleport.

Danial was suddenly in front of me, holding
onto my wrist. “Is it too painful for you to face the truth?”
Danial asked harshly. “You did these things, Sar. You have to pay
the price for what you did. And the price you are going to pay when
you tell Theo is going to be the heaviest of all.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” I shouted at
him, yanking my arm out of his grasp. “Now let me go.”

I stalked out the door, and into the cool
night. By themselves my feet found the path to the cemetery. I
tried not to think too much as I walked.

It hadn’t been too bad with Danial. It could
have been worse. Maybe.

I finally got to the cemetery, and stood for
a while, leaning against the tree, looking over at Suri’s grave. In
the faint moonlight, there was only shapes, and shadows.

“
Suri, I’m glad you didn’t live to see
this—”