Tempest of Vengeance (7 page)

Lash made love to me for a long time,
thrusting into me gently, stroking me, kissing me, touching me so
tenderly it brought tears to my eyes. And through it all, I told
him over and over again that I loved him. And when we finally came,
we came together, crying out, clutching each other as if we would
never let go. After I lay in his arms, and cuddled him to me.

“I’ve missed you so much,” I murmured, sated
completely. “Do you still want to be with me, like you wanted to
before?”

“I want you more than anything,” Lash hissed.
“More than the air I breathe.” I ran my hands over his chest and he
sighed. “I’ve longed to feel you like this, to feel you run your
hands over me, to tell you I love you—”

I felt a pricking of unease, and looked up at
him, into his dark eyes.

“What is it, baby?” he hissed softly, “What’s
wrong?”

Lash would never say that, not when we were
like this. He would have told me I felt good to him. He wouldn’t
have called me “My Love” either, though Danial or Dev had often.
And he would never, ever, call me “baby,” though someone else had,
someone I knew...

This isn’t Lash!

I recoiled, and tried to roll my body away,
but a warm hand grabbed me gently, and kept me still. It was
suddenly Terian who lay beside me, whose body still wore the sweat
of our lovemaking.

I began hyperventilating, my surprise
switching to white hot rage. He’d deceived me with his magic, so he
could have me!
Bastard
! “Are you going to go all demon on me
again?” I finally got out, so angry it was hard to speak. “Or are
you demon already?”

“No,” he said, his eyes sad. “I’m sorry again
about what I did to you—”

“Did you just bind me to yourself?” I spat
the words at him in fury.

“No,” Terian said, his cherrywood eyes
tear-filled now. “I promise, no.”

I didn’t know what to say. I felt betrayed,
duped, and disgusted. “How could you do this, add on this betrayal,
after everything else you’d already done to me? I trusted you! I
thought you were my friend, Terian!”

“Sar, you won’t remember this,” he said with
a trace of sadness. “If you’ll remember anything, you’ll remember
you dreamed of Lash. You weren’t supposed to know I was riding your
dream with you. It must be your demon blood that revealed my true
form to you. Don’t begrudge me dreaming with you, please don’t, not
after all the years I’ve wanted to—”

“I hate you!” I screeched at him, pulling the
covers over my nakedness as I yanked free of him and rose from the
bed to run for the door. But the door disappeared, leaving only
blank wall in front of me.

“Can’t you understand I needed this, to at
least try to be with you like this?” Terian said desperately. “I’ve
had this fantasy for years, ever since you and Theo dreamed
together! That I would meet you in dreams, and you would want me,
love me—”

“But I don’t,” I said forcefully. “And you
can’t make me love you!” I stopped with a hitching breath, afraid,
because it was easily within his power to make me magically love
him.

Terian reached out and grabbed my hand. “I
would never do that to you. Never.”

You would do it in a heartbeat, if you
thought you could get away with it.

“I didn’t know you loved Lash,” he continued.
“I took the form of your heart’s desire, and I expected to wear
Devlin’s form, or Danial’s maybe. I couldn’t see who you perceived
me to be. Though I should have guessed, from what happened in
September. Why didn’t you tell him?”

“That is so none of your business.”
Asshole.

“Tell him,” Terian said firmly. “Lash should
know, especially now that you can be with him. After everything
that’s happened, he should know you’re in love with him.” He got
out of bed, suddenly clothed. I looked down to see that I was also,
and let the covers drop to the floor. “And it’s enough that I
shared this with you. Know I love you very much, and that it’s
meant a lot to me, that you shared this with me, even if you
thought it was him loving you.”

“If I won’t remember any of this, why bother
telling me?”

“You won’t,” he said bitterly. “But I wanted
to say it to you, to remember I said it. To remember I had the guts
to say it. It was so wonderful to hear you say you loved me, to
pretend for just a little that you did, to see what your face looks
like when you tell a man you love him, and really mean it with your
whole heart. And just for once to pretend that I was that man.”

Terian took my hand in his. “Awaken,” he
whispered.

I woke up, wiping my eyes, which oddly were
wet as if I’d been crying.
What time is it?
Why had I woken?
I had a dream. I was doing something...talking to
someone...Terian.
But what had we talked about? And Lash was in
there someplace too? The dream fragments faded even as I tried to
recall details, leaving me with just the vague sensation of
happiness.

Turning over, I let it go, relaxing back and
enjoying the peace filling me. I fell back asleep, and dreamed no
dreams at all.

About noon, I woke up. I lay there for a
while, thought about the past horrendous night, and weeks previous
to it, and made a plan of action.

Chapter
Three

First, I was going to start exercising every
day. I was also going to eat less. When my jeans fit again, I’d
slack off.

Second, I was going to spend more time with
Elle and Venus.

Third, I was going to find a way to write my
parents, and get them letters, since I couldn’t call. Titus should
be able to teleport them, or maybe there was some other mystical
way?

Fourth, I was going to try again to be nicer
to Devlin.

Fifth, when Lash came back, I’d tell him if
he wanted to be with me, he could be.

And Sixth, I was going to stop doing things
because they were best for everyone else. I was going to stop
telling myself that it was okay to do something if I didn’t want to
do something, because someone I loved wanted me to do it, and I
wanted them to be happy, and it was better that way. I’d put what
mattered to me last for most of the past year, hell, longer than
that, since I’d been with Theo. That was over. I needed to put
myself first a little more, because I was responsible for my own
happiness. If I let myself be pushed around, that was exactly what
was going to keep happening. I was finished with that.

That was a good start on a plan. I’d keep
going with others, as I thought of them.

Somehow, I’d forgotten to put my watch back
on, or lost it in last night’s struggle with Theo.
Seventh, get
a new watch, or ask Terian to bring me my old one, if Theo hadn’t
stomped it into pieces of smooshed metal in his anger.
I got up
from the guest bed, dressed in last night’s clothes, and went
looking for the nearest clock, which happened to be in the
happily-unoccupied kitchen.

I made a small breakfast of cereal and
yogurt, then headed upstairs. I knocked on Devlin’s door, and he
answered, his sleepy golden eyes becoming shocked.

“Can I come in?” I asked. “I’m tired.”

“Sure,” Devlin said, tilting his head
invitingly and offering me his hand. “Come in, Love.”

He led me back to bed, and soon had the
length of his cool body pressed against mine. Per usual he was
naked, and I knew he was wondering why I’d left my clothes on
instead of shedding them when I’d gotten into bed with him. “Did
you reconsider staying with Theo?” His voice was carefully void of
emotion.

I debated what to say. I didn’t want Devlin
to know what Theo had tried to do. He’d kill Theo for sure, and as
much as that had seemed a wonderful idea last night, it wasn’t
something I was comfortable doing in the light of day, now that I
was safe. Theo was Elle’s father, and too important to Theoron now
for protection.
As much as I hate Theo, I can’t just...

Devlin lost his patience immediately.
“Sarelle, what’s wrong? Answer me.”

“Theo and I are splitting up. He’s leaving me
for Jenny.”

Devlin was silent, but I could feel the
pleasure, the utter satisfaction, emanating from him like smoke. He
caressed my shoulder, and then kissed it lightly with his soft cool
lips. I’m sorry,” he said, leaning over and kissing my lips gently.
“But I’m happy too, because now you are just mine, Love.”

Why does that seem so familiar? “Love”?
Hmm...

“Will you stay here with me now?” he
whispered gently. “Please

consider—”

“I’m not sure,” I said honestly, leaving my
musing. “This changes everything, Dev. I need time.”

“Take your time,” Devlin replied quickly.
“I’m just happy you are here with me.”

I knew he knew I didn’t have anywhere else to
go, just as I did. But I appreciated him not saying it, anyway.
Especially as the day progressed and things seemed to go from bad
to worse.

T called about noon, as I was having lunch
with Venus. “Mom,” he said without preamble, “I need to ask you to
not come here for a while.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. T
kept talking. “I don’t know what happened with Theo and you. He
told Terian and me that you’d chosen Devlin over him, but both of
us could see there was a lot more to it than that. Terian also told
me to leave it alone, that it was between the two of you, and I’m
taking his advice. But Theo is going to be staying here in the main
house, like he has been these past two weeks, and he said he wants
Jenny to stay with him. And the bottom line is that he’s my only
partner left.”

I said nothing. T paused, and seemed to
gather his courage. “I need Theo here, and it’s true, this is more
his home now than it is yours,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry to say
it like that, or to tell you that you shouldn’t visit, but everyone
would be uncomfortable, including you, if you came here to see Elle
or me—”

“I assume this is the part where you tell me
you’ll come and see me instead?”

“I’ll be coming to Hayden regularly every
week, at least twice or three times to see Serena. I’ll bring Elle
with me, so she can visit you. Terian can teleport us both. And if
you want to spend time with me, if I have any after sleeping and
working this month, just ask me, and I’ll schedule it—”

He sounded so much like Danial had. Exactly
like Danial had. It was eerie.

“Okay,” I said tonelessly. “That’s good. But
what about the filing?”

“Jenny will do it,” Theo said “But I really
do need you to do that e-mail work for me—”

Shit! I knew there was something I had been
forgetting. The thought of familiar work calmed my next words.
“I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon on it. I’m sorry I
haven’t—”

“I’m sorry to ask you to,” T said quietly. “I
know this has been a week from hell, Mom.”

I bit my lip hard to keep from crying. “It’s
okay. Sitting around doing nothing is not going to help me feel any
better any sooner. Working will at least help me take my mind off
everything.”

“I’ll be coming for the first time on
Wednesday,” T said. “It’s the seventeenth—”

How could November be passing so slowly? It
seemed like months ago that we’d gone to the Hallow’s party, and
Lash had been free, and Robin and Devon alive, Danial okay...

I shook it off, getting myself under control.
You can handle this. Now do it.

“I’ll see you then,” I said. “Please be
careful. I love you, T.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

I hung up the phone and went back to Venus,
who was regarding me very carefully, her golden eyes watchful.
“Mom, Elle is coming here?” She sounded eager, and also a little
scared.

“Yes, this week,” I said, kissing her
forehead. “Now finish your sandwich. I have to get to work. I’m
afraid I’ll have to leave you with Serena for a few hours, V.”

“Can I help?” she said hopefully.

“Not with this,” I said kindly, stroking her
hair. “I have to help T with a few things. But later we’ll watch a
movie, and have popcorn.”

“Dad said he had to make some arrangements
tonight, that he wouldn’t be around. Do you need to help him with
that, too?”

“Your dad doesn’t need me to help him with
that, usually,” I said awkwardly, feeling very, very strange to be
discussing this with her. “Lash usually helps him instead of
me.”

“But Lash isn’t here. Who will help him, if
Lash doesn’t?”

My nerves were raw and ragged. But I took a
deep breath, and tried to be reassuring. “Your dad is good at what
he does. He can handle it himself until Lash is back, which will be
very soon. Now eat.”

Venus’s worried expression lingered, but she
finished eating. After leaving her in Serena’s care, I went down to
the study, and logged onto the computer. There were over five
hundred emails in the Solutions, Inc. inbox. I sighed, and got to
work, responding to emails without enough information, answering
the ones I could, forwarding the more “clean” jobs to Theoron c/o
Danial’s e-mail, and printing out the ones for Devlin that sounded
more like his line of work.

Eight p.m. saw me only into the second
hundred, and I’d gotten another fifty during the day. But I had
promised myself the time to exercise, and so I shut down the
computer, leaving the ten possible jobs for Dev to find on his desk
in a printed pile. I met him as I was coming upstairs.

“I need to go now,” he said quietly, hugging
me. “But don’t worry. Titus and Rip are both going with me, and
we’ll only be gone for an hour.”

“Please be careful,” I said as I hugged
him.

“I will be,” he said seriously. “Wait for me
to eat?”

I nodded. “I left a stack of jobs on your
desk.”

“Thank you, I’ll read through them later,” he
replied, as he walked off.

By the time I’d exercised, showered, and
dressed, Devlin had returned. “Everything went well,” he said
quietly, hugging me. “No problems. But I had to meet with Tony and
Thane, and they wouldn’t come here, not that I really wanted them
to anyway. It’s done, though, and by the time I have to meet with
them again, this should all be over.”