With the morning light filtering in through the windows, glinting a mesmerizing gold off Kara’s long brown locks, Gavin couldn’t move from her side. Since he’d met Kara, life had been a whirlwind. He’d never had the chance to watch her sleep like this. He’d never been able to touch her hair and really test its silky weight in his hand.
He didn’t want her to wake and find him sifting his fingers through her hair, gazing at her with love in his eyes, but she was exhausted from expending her energy, and the soft sound of her breathing was slow and steady. If he thought she’d stay asleep, he might have risked tracing the tip of his finger along the perfect pink bow of her lips.
He ached for her down to the pit of his damned soul.
But even if Julian hadn’t been in the picture, Gavin could never give Kara what she longed for. If he figured out a way to shield her from Brakken’s attention, he still couldn’t get past the fact that he’d sired a child. A sweet, little demibreed boy would arrive on this earth in eight months’ time and be handed over to a demon who ate those who displeased him—a man who tortured his mistresses and children with the ease that some people stroked their pets.
With a brow furrowed in guilt, Gavin kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed behind Kara, spooning his body around hers ever so carefully so as not to wake her. He pulled the blankets up around them and sighed as her heat warmed him to the coldest crevices of his heart.
Could he take her away with him? Could he take his son and the woman he loved and flee to somewhere Brakken would never find them? When she learned of the child, would she even want to go?
With a self-deprecating smile, Gavin closed his eyes and pressed his cheek to the back of her head. Why did he torment himself with these dreams? She loved Julian. She’d told him as much, and he’d promised to help. He couldn’t fathom that the brother of his heart could have risen from the grave to join the ranks of the hell-bound angels, but Kara believed it, and that was enough to get his attention.
He skimmed his fingers down her arm and rested his hand over hers. No, he couldn’t have her. This fragile moment in time was all that Fate—the merciless bitch—would ever allow him.
Kara awoke to the gentle sound of Gavin’s voice in her ear. “Princess… Princess, it’s time to rise. The sun will be going down soon.”
Kara jerked, her heart pounding, and the back of her head hit something that—judging by the proximity of his voice—could only be Gavin’s face. How could it already be time? She flipped over and saw Gavin holding a hand to his bloody lip.
“Oh! Sorry,” she said, but then her eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t expecting you to be in the same bed.”
He licked at the small drop of blood. “I thought it would be safer if we were in the same room. Your strength seemed depleted, and I couldn’t risk someone attacking you while you slept.”
She shifted in the toasty cocoon and smiled. “Thanks.”
“It’s nothing.”
“No, really. Thank you, Gavin. I wish I knew what you’re not telling me, but I do believe you would have been there for the clan if you could have been. I made you a deal back at the apartment that if you helped me with Julian, I would give you the benefit of the doubt. You’ve kept your word, and I haven’t. I’m sorry. It’s just…harder than I thought it would be to let go.”
“I understand.”
“Do you? If it was just anger, just hate, that would be easy. But I look at you, and I know you’re a good man. I could never truly hate you, so all that leaves room for in my heart is hurt.”
He stared at her a long while, his face so haunted, Kara thought if she gazed long enough into his eyes she might unbury his secrets there. She waited, but he didn’t speak. “You’re really not going to tell me, are you?”
He shook his head. His lips were a thin line, white around the edges, and his face was flushed. “I can’t.”
She gave him a small smile. “That’s okay. A deal’s a deal, right? You’re still going to help me with Julian…”
He took her hand. “You know I am.”
She squeezed his fingers and slipped from the bed. “Okay. Let’s do this. Let’s get ready to go save a black-wing.”
Gavin’s smile was slow and shallow, as if it only affected the surface of his face and didn’t penetrate deeper. “I’m sure we can find you something warm to wear, but any food here will come from a can, unfortunately.”
“That’s okay. Before Jaxon moved in, most of the food in my apartment came from a can.” She started looking through the drawers. “So, Julian really keeps clothes in all the places he stays?”
“Not all, but since it takes seconds to travel, it’s nice to have each location at least partially stocked.”
Her gaze fell on the window. With the position of the sun in the sky, they had a half hour tops before Julian returned.
Kara paced to the window. “How far is it to the tree?”
“No more than a mile. He chose a house along the border of the sacred land, so it doesn’t take long from here.”
“Are you nervous?”
Gavin rose from the bed. “Yes. As well I should be. I’ve had a lifetime of experience with the power of the Aniliáre. They aren’t to be trifled with.”
Kara bit her lip as an image of Julian’s shout invaded her mind. She would never forget the horror of her attacker disintegrating to bits in front of her eyes. “I should warn you that he probably won’t remember you, and he can be slightly…intense.”
“I know how to deal with them as well as anyone does.”
Kara twisted the hem of her shirt in her fingers. “But don’t you think this time is a little different?”
His eyebrows rose. “Are you trying to talk me out of it?”
“No, I just don’t want anything to happen to you. I couldn’t handle that.”
“It’s not your responsibility. If it is Julian, I’ll help him to safety, but if it isn’t, then the only place I’m going to show him is the Abyss.”
“Oh, for the love of Pete, Gavin. It’s him. I swear.”
“The sun is almost down, and if you’re right, he’ll be materializing under the poplar. Why don’t you look through the closet while I find us something to eat?”
Kara rummaged through the clear plastic bags hanging in Julian’s closet and found a red long-sleeved shirt for Gavin and a heavy brown coat to go over it. For herself, she chose a green flannel shirt over a thick black sweater. With how many times she had to roll the sleeves, her wrists would be the warmest part of her body. But her feet were in trouble. The only thing they could find for her was a pair of rubber flip-flops. Gavin used a pair of kitchen shears to trim them closer to the size of Kara’s feet while she changed in the bathroom and freshened up.
When they left out the front door, tummies full of soup and each carrying a blanket, Kara started to worry. The position of the sun was all that mattered at that moment as it continued its descent and the night crept up to overtake the last remnants of the day.
“There.” Gavin pointed to a tall, somewhat narrow tree in the center of a field. It wasn’t alone, though—other smaller trees had sprouted up around it.
“That’s the sacred tree?” She wrinkled her nose. “Are you sure? It’s taller than the one on the island and not as full.” It looked as if it was losing leaves, but they weren’t turning colors as she’d expected. They were just dropping off to accumulate on the ground below.
“Very sure. I was here when he planted that one.”
They came to stand near the trunk, and Kara tilted her head back, seeking the top of the tree. “I didn’t know that. I knew you were close, but I’ve never had the chance to hear the stories of how you spent your time outside the clan.”
“I loved Gable. He was my brother, and I believe he would have been a good man if he hadn’t been raised by Brakken, but I’ve never been closer to another man than I was to Julian.”
Kara slid down the trunk and sat with her back leaning against it. Gavin gestured to the spot beside her. “Do you mind?”
“Please,” she said softly, inviting him to sit. “When I said I couldn’t imagine how difficult it must have been for you to lose two brothers, I meant it. I thought I’d lost Abbey, but that wasn’t the same thing as
really
losing Abbey. It only lasted about twenty minutes—and they were the worst twenty minutes of my life.”
“What you have with Abbey is the perfect example of what Julian and I shared. Just multiply it by eight or ten lifetimes.”
Kara sat in pensive silence for a moment, playing with her fingers. “So isn’t there a part of you that’s sort of excited to see him again? I don’t understand why everyone has been so hell-bent on convincing me that a Shadow Rising isn’t possible. Would it be so bad to get my hopes up?”
Gavin pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. “Maybe it isn’t your hopes we’re worried will be dashed, but our own. And you also have to remember that every single one of us highborns had Aniliáre fathers. They can take the shape of whatever they like. Try seeing your father masquerade as your mother—the woman he killed—using her mannerisms, replicating her scent, just to see you suffer. Then maybe you’ll understand the skepticism.”
Kara covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, Gavin. That’s horrible. I’m so sorry.”
He shrugged. “I do trust your judgment, Kara, but I suppose it’s the sort of thing where I need to see him with my own eyes before I will be truly convinced.”
The field was growing darker. With not a lamp in sight, it was almost too dark to make out the color of Gavin’s jacket, much less the rich hazel of his eyes. “It won’t be much longer now. Sundown is around the time he shows up at my apartment. You don’t think he’ll go there first, do you?”
“If he’s materializing under the protection of night, he likely wouldn’t travel to San Diego for another three hours. Considering his body seems to be tied to this place, my guess is that he bides his time here—perhaps consciously, perhaps in limbo—until he feels the day fade where you are.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of tha—” Before Kara could even finish her sentence, she felt what she could only describe as a shimmer in the atmosphere around them. It started as a small, undulating wave, but as the tremor grew, it shook the ground, loosing a rush of leaves from the canopy above them.
Gavin leapt to his feet when a naked form, curled in a ball, started to gain substance just three feet from where they sat.
The moans caught Kara’s attention first. Pure agony rising from Julian’s soul and making its way up his throat. He writhed on the spongy bed of leaves, his limbs spasming, his hands curled tight like a bird of prey, his black wings pinned to his back.
When Kara lunged toward him, Gavin grabbed her arm. “Let him come to first.”
She shook off his grip and dropped to her knees beside Julian, taking his cheeks in her hands. “Julian?”
His eyes were unfocused, looking everywhere and nowhere at once. Finally, his gaze settled on Kara’s face. “I came back to you.” He frowned, squinting in pain, seeming to take in the tree behind her. “No—you came to me.”
Kara smiled and as her eyes welled, a pulse of emotion bubbled up from her chest as a hiccup of laughter. “I came for you.”
When his eyes began to roll back, Kara’s heart misfired like a dying engine. She pressed her wrist to his mouth. “Drink.”
“No. No more. I am finished. Seeing you again was enough.”
Her nostrils flared, and she growled, “Well, I’m not finished. Stop being such a damn baby and drink.”
This time she shoved her wrist so hard against his fangs, she felt the prick of one sharp tooth against her vein. When the first drop of blood hit Julian’s tongue, he forgot his idiotic plans for martyrdom and latched on, biting through her thin skin to make a large gash there. Kara stifled a squeak of pain and tried to calm her pulse, but her body was telling her to fight back against this predator.
She could get through this, she told herself. She’d give him her whole damn arm if he needed it. After a minute or two, she noticed his body gaining strength. His muscles looked fuller, his movements more precise and graceful, his suckling more…sensuous.
“Save some for later, princess,” Gavin said wryly.
Julian yanked back his bloody lips and shot into the air quicker than Kara could track with her eyes. His glistening wings burst from his shoulders to their full breadth, the tip of each feather looking like a sharply pointed dagger. “Who is this man?” he hissed, then his piercing gaze skimmed over the countryside. “His energy is mingled with yours as far as the eye can see.”
When his mouth opened and his lips quivered with the beginning of a roar—a roar that would forever haunt her—she leapt toward Gavin and threw her body in front of his. “This is Gavin! You love Gavin. He’s like a brother to you.”
“Gavin. Yes, I remember your stories of Gavin…the one you met
first
.” The slant of Julian’s glowing red eyes reminded Kara of a bird of prey. “You lowly dog, hiding behind a woman,” he sneered.
When Gavin grasped Kara by the shoulders, a move she knew would send her to her ass somewhere far from the strike zone, she twirled in his arms to face him and wrapped her arms around his middle. “No, Gavin. Just let him calm down for a minute.”
She thought she would see anger and indignation in his eyes, but they were wide with some other emotion building there. Maybe hope.