Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 (11 page)

“I’ll be able to follow through with that little threat in about half an hour if you’re still awake and needing.” His brogue had dissolved into more regular speech and it was reassuring to hear.

“I’m sure I’ll be ‘needing’ in another six hours or so. For now, though, I’m worn out.” I slipped off of him and curled into his side, his arms drawing me close.

“We should sleep, then, so I’m fully prepared to meet your needs.” His hair spread out in thick, multi-colored golden waves across the pillow and his eyes more than three-quarters closed. One corner of his lips curled up.
 

“Are we okay?” I asked softly.

He looked down at me, his eyes pulsing. “You didn’t have to do that,
mo duine dorcha
. I’ll
be
fine, and we
are
fine.”

“I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to.” I watched him for a few seconds before I asked again, “Better?”

“Since I met you? Yes.” He pulled me even closer so I rested with my cheek on his chest before tucking the covers around us. “Why are you so concerned? My spurt of temper?”

I tried to shrug, embarrassed. “No real reason.”

“I’m not daft, Maddy. Why?”

I rolled my face into his chest and mumbled my answer.
 

He lifted my chin and stared down at me. “Again.”

“Fine. You were so withdrawn, and I didn’t want the fact that it’s been the day from…”

“Hell?” he asked softly.

I nodded. “I don’t think I’ll ever use that term the same way again.”

“Nor shall I. Go on, though. Finish the thought. It’s been the day from hell.”

“Do you really need me to spell it out?” I fussed, and he just looked at me. “A mangled fallen angel shows up followed by your darkest nightmare which you’re forced to confess, I learned all about things in the universe that I shouldn’t know, I had to pull my shirt off to stop a fight and then I had to hit you—
hit
you, Hellion—and then Bahlin shows up and now we’re working together again and he’s spending the damn night.” My chest was heaving by the time I finished, and I pressed my face into his side again. “And I love you,” I said between breaths.

“That last is the only reason that really matters, my heart,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss the top of my head.
 

The light clicked out and darkness fell over the room, but I knew it wouldn’t last for long. The faintest daylight was just beginning to peak around the edges of the drawn curtains. I was drifting off to sleep when I realized the Nephilim would be left alone during the day.
 

“Hellion?”
 

“Hm.”

“What are we going to do about Micah while we sleep? Darius won’t be awake to—” I yawned wide enough to crack my jaw, “—watch over him.”

Hellion pulled me tighter to his side and shifted toward me slightly. “He’ll not leave the house, Maddy. He needs us to survive.”

I’m not sure who fell asleep first. All I know is that I never got a chance to ask what he meant.

“Maddy? Can you hear me, child?”

The voice was pleasantly familiar, but I was too far gone to make a conscious choice about whether or not I answered. I rolled away from the voice and snuggled further into the nest of covers.
 

“Madeleine, I need to speak to you. Get up,” the voice barked.

Crap. I was going to wake up. I could feel it happening. I rolled over to snap at the owner of the voice when I realized the covers hadn’t moved.
Ah, Tyr.
I looked up and there was my fifty-times-or-so great-grandfather, the Norse god, Tyr.
 

He squatted down next to the bed and said, “No need to get up.” He looked over his shoulder at something I couldn’t see or hear. “I’ll be quick. Nephilim are volatile creatures, Maddy.”

“How do you know?” I asked around a yawn.

“Firsthand experience. Take care what you tell him and how you react to what he tells you. They’re arrogant. He will rarely see your input as valuable in the beginning.” Tyr reached out and stroked my cheek. “But Micah has no choice other than to be truthful with you if he wants what he… He just has to be honest. You must remember that to hear and to listen, to want and to need, and to lust and to love are all different things.”

Goose bumps broke out over my skin, and an ominous drumbeat seemed to set the pace of my pulse. “What’s going on?”

His eyes narrowed before he said, “You’ll be faced with a decision of faith—”

“What kind of faith?” I demanded.

He smiled. “You’re getting good at this game. Not religious faith, sweets. Just remember what I told you.” He leaned over and kissed my forehead. “I’ve got to go. I’ll be less available to you over the next two weeks.”

“Taking a vacation?” I teased.

A shadow passed across his face. “Something like that,” he said with a light-heartedness that I wasn’t buying. Tyr arched his back and grunted as the sound of a crack hit the air.
 

I scrambled to sit up and grabbed Tyr. Someone was whipping him.
 

“Remember that the best lies are shrouded in truth.”
Crack! Crack!
in rapid succession and he fell to his knees, chest heaving.
 

“What the hell? We need to get you out of here.”

He grabbed my ankle. “No, Maddy. This is what it is. I’ve borne much worse. Be safe, be cautious and…bloody hell, if I’m being whipped anyway, fear Asmodeus. Oh shit. Here we go.” Tyr was yanked away from me so fast I could only see a streak of color where his blood traced the floor. Then he was gone.

I opened my mouth to scream for him, but I never got the words out. I was shifted back to sleep. I dreamt that there was an eclipse but something went wrong and the sun was extinguished, leaving a bloody moon to rule the sky.

Chapter Six

A soft knock at the door woke me and the first thing I realized was that Hellion was no longer in bed. I rolled over, intent on yelling for whoever it was to come in. Before I could open my mouth, my missing lover emerged from the bathroom wearing a towel slung low around his hips, his damp hair hanging in unbrushed hunks around his head and shoulders. Seeing I was awake, he called out for the visitor to enter.

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or groan when Mark stuck his head in. It seemed that if either Hellion or I were unclothed and behind a closed door, the young butler found a reason to knock. The guy was more effective than a medieval chastity belt.

“Sir, Darius is in his room in the basement. Your other two guests are awake and have finished breakfast. What would you have me do with them?” he asked, clearly disgruntled to be playing host to one or the other, or maybe even both, of the unexpected houseguests who would be up this time of day.

Hellion stood with his hands on his hips and his chin dropped to his chest.
 

I decided to answer for him. “Have Micah bring Bahlin up to speed on everything we discussed yesterday and we’ll be down—” I glanced at the nightstand clock, “—within the hour.”

“Sure, Maddy,” the butler said, inclining his head to me and backing out of the room.

“An hour?” Hellion asked, waggling his brows suggestively.

I laughed. “Fat chance, buddy. I told him within the hour because I’ve got to get cleaned up from last night and strip the bed so he doesn’t…so he doesn’t, uh, see the sheets.”

Hellion rocked back on his heels and roared with laughter.

“What?” I crawled out of bed and began to pull the pillows out of the pillowcases.

“You think he believes we’re playing Parcheesi while we’re up here grunting like rutting sheep, love?”

“Nice visual, asshat. Grunt by yourself a few nights while I’m sleeping in the other master and I’m betting he’ll know exactly what’s going on.” I made a rude hand gesture and his laughter faded.

“You’d really deny me over dirtied sheets?”

“Number one, if you think you have some right to me because I’m here, let me assure you and your Neanderthal staff you’re wrong. Number two, if you think it’s over sheets—”

He bent me over the edge of the bed and eased into me in one move.

I struggled and he leaned forward to nip at my shoulder. “Shall I quit then,
síorghrá
?” He moved across a particularly pleasurable spot and I mutely shook my head. “Sorry, I didn’t hear that.” He did it again.

“Ba-a-a-a-a,” I answered in my best imitation of a sheep’s call.

He fell forward, laughing so hard that his deep baritone echoed in my skull and reverberated through my back.
 

I smiled. “What? You don’t speak sheep?”

He whispered his answer into my ear, his brogue thickening. “Aye, lass, I do, an’ ye’ve no idea what ye’ve joost asked me tae do tae ye, though I’m happy tae oblige.”

Oblige me he did, so well in fact that I hardly had any time left over to grab my shower. I left the room without thinking of the sheets again.

We walked into a silent dining room, the atmosphere tense as the two houseguests sat staring at their respective plates. Glancing at Hellion, I moved to the sideboard and took one of the plates left on the warmer for me, moving to sit in my usual spot. Hellion poured a cup of coffee for himself and reached into the small ice bucket to grab me a Coke. The pop of the tab was deceptively loud. I dug into my eggs, intent on eating and ignoring the building apprehension so long as I could.

Hellion took his seat with his plate and lifted the lid.
 

Bahlin shifted to face him, one arm casually slung over the back of the chair and a forced look of innocence on his face. “So, thanks for the room and all the hospitality.”

Hellion cut up his eggs and forked some into his mouth, chewing slowly and staring at the other man. He swallowed, took a sip of coffee and then said, “You’re welcome. I trust you found everything to your liking?” With a total lack of concern, he shifted his attention back to his breakfast and forked up another bite of egg.

Bahlin exploded from the table, the chair careening backward and hitting the wall. “Let me just commend you on the acoustics! They’re fucking fabulous.” He stormed out of the dining room, the door slamming shut behind him in unnecessary punctuation.

Setting my fork down beside my plate with exaggerated calm, I looked over at the Nephilim still seated at the table. “Um, Micah?”

“Yes, Maddy?”

“How good is your hearing?”

He grinned. “Exceptional.”

I dropped my face into my hands.

“Shit,” Hellion said quietly.

“Yeah, that about sums it up.” Looked like I wouldn’t be eating breakfast after all.

“Should I go after him?” Hellion asked me. “I truly didn’t consider he might hear, Maddy. I’d never do that to him, no matter how much I might hate the history you share.”

“I know, and no. I think he needs to have some cooling off time. Micah?”

“Mm-hm?”

“How much were you able to share with him?”

“Oh, you gave us plenty of time to chat.”

Heat suffused my cheeks at the look of intense interest on his face.
 

Hellion’s tone was sharp when he said, “I don’t believe you answered my lady’s question.”

“My apologies. We had plenty of time to discuss the matter of Agares. We’d honestly just finished talking about fifteen minutes before you came into the room.”

With a sigh, Hellion stood and moved toward the door. “I know you think I should wait and you may be right, but I believe I’d best talk to the dragon before we get started for the day. No sense in having to go through this several times due to poor tempers.” He dropped a kiss on my head as he walked out the door. This time it slid shut softly.

Micah reached out and took my hand. “There are many things you and I need to discuss, Madeleine Niteclif.”

“Just Maddy, Micah. Never more, never less.”

“Fair enough.” The Nephilim lifted my hand to his lips and scraped his teeth across my knuckles, and I felt moisture pool between my thighs. I yanked on my hand but he held tight, his eyes grazing my pebbled nipples and his nostrils flaring as he scented the air. “I must admit that I’d prefer you hadn’t come to the dining room smelling of another man.”

“And it’s really not your place to prefer me at all,” I ground out, still pulling on my hand.

“You have no idea what I’m capable of doing for you.”

“If you’re hearing is all that, then you know exactly what he’s doing for me.”

He chuckled darkly and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. “I’ll remind you that you said that in three days.”

“I didn’t pay you to have my fortune told, so keep your freaking predictions to yourself.” I tugged once more and he released my hand suddenly enough that I nearly smacked myself in the head.
 

“Keep our discussions between us. I’ll ask you once nicely.”

“Some damned angel,” I muttered.

“I fear you’re too right by half.”