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Kellan nodded. "I know that. This will only end one way for me. I've seen that for myself."
"You've seen it." Something cold and suspicious flickered in Nathan's steady gaze now. His voice, which had been carefully schooled and quiet, now notched a bit louder. "You mean Mira's shown something to you. A vision?" A curse, ripe and violent, erupted from between his old friend's lips. "You've used her ability, knowing what that costs her?"
"Jesus, no. I never would've done that," Kellan said. "Not intentionally - "
"Fuck you and your intentions," Nathan growled now. He stalked forward, dangerous in his outrage. "Did you use her? Did you use her gift for your own selfish gain?"
"Kellan . . . ?"
Ah, Christ.
Mira's worried voice sounded from behind him in the dark of the bedroom. He wasn't ready for her to walk into his conversation with Nathan yet. He wasn't ready for her to learn that he'd brought Nathan to them as a means of surrendering without bloodshed or casualties. Everything was happening too fast, a snowball picking up speed as it careened down the side of a mountain.
"It's okay," he told her, sending the reassurance over his shoulder as he heard her start to get up. "Mira, stay. I'll be right there and we can talk."
She kept moving, fabric rustling as she pulled a sheet from the bed and wrapped herself inside it. Her bare feet padded softly, carefully, on the wide pine floor as she made her way toward the open French doors. "Who are you talking to out there? Kellan, what's going on?"
And then a misstep. A halting, hitching movement that made Kellan's heart sink like a stone.
He pivoted and flashed to her side, catching her before she could fall. Her small cry of distress went through him, as sharp and unforgiving as an arrow. "Shh," he soothed her. "Shh, I've got you, Mira. It's okay now."
A low growl at Kellan's back made his neck prickle with warning. "Holy hell. It's even worse than I imagined."
"Nathan?" Mira asked, her pale, cloudy eyes searching in the darkness. "Kellan . . . what's Nathan doing here? Tell me what's happening. Kellan . . . ?"
"You goddamn bastard." The Hunter's voice was pure menace, all of it locked on Kellan. "You've fucking blinded her."
Chapter Twenty-Two
"NATHAN, NO!" ALTHOUGH MIRA COULDN'T SEE THE BREED warrior move, she felt the crushing impact of his body as Nathan launched himself at Kellan. In her veins, she felt the echo of each punishing blow of the fists that came down onto Kellan's head and torso.
But the physical pain she experienced through her blood bond was nothing compared with the agony of knowing the two men she cared for so deeply - her two best friends, who'd been as close as brothers to each other at one time - were now engaged in a brutal fight because of her.
And fight was not the right term for what was taking place in front of her. Even though her vision was nothing but blackness and shadows, she could tell that Kellan wasn't even attempting to strike back at Nathan. He fended off the incoming fists, dodged when he could, but threw no punches of his own. He wouldn't fight his friend. Kellan had too much honor for that, despite what Nathan must think of him now.
"Nathan, stop!" Hindered by blindness and the sheet wrapped around her nakedness, Mira scrabbled in frustration, finally laying her hand on the massive form hunched over Kellan on the pine plank floor of the bedroom. She grabbed a fistful of his form-fitting combat shirt and yanked, trying to pull him away. "Nathan, it wasn't Kellan who blinded me. I did it myself. Damn it, listen to me. You have to stop this right now!"
The pummeling slowed, then halted as Nathan's bulk shifted beneath her hold on him. She felt the heat of his gaze on her face and knew that his eyes had to be fully transformed - blazing hot with amber light and rage. His breath was sawing out of him, rough and heavy. Realizing just how furious he was - how deadly violent - Mira understood that Nathan could have killed Kellan then and there if he'd truly meant to. He could have killed him outside a few minutes ago, before she'd even known he was there.
"Let him up, Nathan. Kellan won't ask mercy of you, but I will." She searched for Nathan's face with her free hand, an inelegant movement that made him hiss a dark curse.
"Ah, fuck, Mira. Look what he's done to you."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "No, Kellan hasn't done anything. He tried to help me. He gave me his blood - "
"Jesus Christ." Nathan scoffed. His voice turned away from her then, and she knew he was looking at Kellan. "You wait all this time to come back into her life, only to ruin it by shackling her to you with the blood bond?"
"I love her," Kellan said. Mira heard him coming up off the floor, felt his warmth as he drew close to her. His hands came down light on her shoulders, comforting and strong. "I will always love her, no matter what fate has to say about it." His mouth pressed against her temple, tender and sweet. "I love you, Mira. More than anything else in this world or the next."
She knew that. Deep down, she knew he meant every word. But here he was, shattering her heart.
He was letting go.
"You promised me," she murmured, closing her eyes against the pain. "You said you wouldn't let me go."
"Ah, Mouse." Another kiss, this one landing gently on her eyelid. His voice was a rough whisper, low and intimate, thick with emotion. "Letting go of you is the last thing I ever want to do. If there was a way to turn this around, believe me, I would."
As Kellan soothed her with tender words of good-bye, elsewhere in the Darkhaven came the muffled sounds of infiltration and struggle. Deep, familiar voices commanding Kellan's crew to cooperate with their arrest and no one would get hurt.
