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“I think he would. Because you saved him from a life of captivity and madness. You gave him his freedom. Some of us… we didn’t get that choice and now we live with the consequences.” And with that, I vanished through the bookcase that hid the steel door leading to my lair.
Luke and Amber were sitting on the bed, playing a game of cards. Luke had been my bartender before Derrick took over, before his sister Amber had shown up wearing one of the spirit seals. Now they were both Keraastar Knights, sworn to protect the seals they wore, magically bound to them with an invisible chain that only death could sever.
I hadn’t seen Luke for months, and now, as I gazed into his eyes, I realized he had changed. His eyes were stark, a deep brown against the wheat-colored hair that hung loose. He’d always worn it in a ponytail when he worked for me, but now it was loose, mid-back, and brushed to a silky sheen. The scar that had marred his cheek was almost gone—as if something had rejuvenated him, and I was pulled to him in a way I’d never before felt. Amber, his sister, had gone from pretty and pregnant, to seductive and voluptuous. Her child, a little girl, was playing with a doll on the floor. Together, she and her brother radiated a power that felt magnified to the tenth degree. Around their necks, the spirit seals glowed against their hearts.
What Shadow Wing wouldn’t give to get hold of them. A sudden fear gripped me, and I wished the dragons had already come. They were due to show up and escort the pair to safety the day after tomorrow, but as we’d seen in the past, so much could happen in so little time.
“Menolly…” Luke stood, a smile grazing his face. He looked tired and so did Amber. Tired, intense, and far older than the last time we’d spoken.
“Luke, it’s so good to see you. Amber, you, too. I see you had your little one.” I smiled down at the girl, who was barely toddling around at this point.
“Her name is Jolina. That was our mother’s name.” Amber smiled, baring her teeth. She and Luke were werewolves. Amber had escaped from a patriarchal pack that had abused her. Luke had been thrown out years earlier for disobeying their rules.
“Hi, Jolina.” I knelt down to look at the girl. She was tiny, as were all babies her size, but she gazed up at me, and the flash in her eyes told me that she was older than she seemed. “She seems… very… aware.”
Amber shrugged. “I wore the spirit seal throughout my pregnancy. By then it was already changing my nature. We don’t know how the magic will affect Jolina yet, but yes, she’s precocious. That much we can tell.”
Standing again, I moved to a chair near the bed and sat, crossing my legs. “The Wayfarer burned down Monday night. Chrysandra died in the fire.”
At that, Luke seemed to startle out of his silence. “No! I’m so sorry. Smoke inhalation or burns?”
Neither, to be truthful, although the extent of her injuries would have killed her anyway. But Luke didn’t need to know that I’d been the one to give her release from the pain, so I lied.
“She died from her burns. We buried her early this evening.” After a moment, I added, “I was there. In Elqaneve, when the storm came through. I managed to get out without seeing much of the damage, but Delilah and Camille were caught in the thick of things.”
Both of them stared at me, unspeaking, and I realized that there would be no catching up. No discussion of how the spirit seals had changed them, of what Asteria had been planning for them and the Keraastar Knights. We needed to know, but it wouldn’t be Amber and Luke telling me. They were so far removed from the lives they had led here that they might as well be speaking a different language.
I was going to have to say good-bye, to let go of the people they’d been. I was going to have to move Luke and Amber into my past, and accept that they were now fully Keraastar Knights—along with whatever that entailed.
Standing, I motioned for them to follow me. “It’s getting near dawn and we’ve all been up far too long. I need my lair but you will be safe upstairs. Vanzir will watch over you. And the guards are thick on our land.”
Amber lifted up Jolina and started up the stairs, but Luke paused to turn back to me.
“I never thanked you for all your friendship and kindness, Menolly. I can see it in your eyes—you think I’ve changed. Well, that’s true, but I have never forgotten what my time at the Wayfarer was like. You had an effect on my life.” With a slight laugh, he touched the spirit seal. “Rather obvious, yes. But seriously—I’m a better werewolf for having met you. I’ll never forget you.” And with that, he headed up the stairs.
I decided to let them go without me. I wasn’t part of their lives anymore. A few moments later, Nerissa came downstairs. She took one look at my face and opened her arms. I had thought I wanted sex, but when she wrapped me tight, I laid my head against her bountiful chest and began to cry. As my tears stained her sweater, she moved me over to the bed, and we curled up together, and I wept for the losses in my life. Only I wasn’t even sure what some of those losses were.
Chapter 4
Come dawn, I slept without dreaming—a blessing considering who I was and the baggage I carried. By the time I woke up, at sunset, Nerissa had long been up and was almost done with her day. Our opposite sleep schedules interfered with our lives at times, but we made it work. We had from sundown till late night together, and on weekends, she’d stay up late with me—till two or three in the morning. Weres didn’t need as much sleep as FBHs, so she was good with a few hours.
Last night, after I’d cried myself out, we’d watched an old movie—Mildred Pierce—and then she’d snuggled down to sleep while I spent the rest of the night reading. The house was quiet during the late-night hours, and I relished my time to myself. I was in the middle of a biography of Rasputin, and the reading was slow and dense, but interesting.
Come sunrise, I’d curled up next to my wife and fallen asleep. We were safe enough in the same bed as long as she was awake and out of reach by the first moments I woke at night.
As I took a quick shower, then slipped into jeans and a turtleneck, I heard the phone ring upstairs. Even through the steel door, my hearing was so sensitive that I could hear the doorbell, the phone, loud conversations. There was a flurry of words that I couldn’t quite make out. The steel door we’d installed muffled sound better than the old wooden one. But by that time, I was at the top of the stairs and could hear Camille. She sounded surprised. I sauntered out into the kitchen to find her staring at the phone in her hand, her head cocked to the side.
“You look puzzled.”
“Yeah, well, that was cousin Daniel.” She turned around, the quizzical look still present. “He wants to get together for dinner. He basically invited himself over tomorrow night.”
That was a shocker. First, the very fact that our blood cousins actually wanted to hang out surprised me. Second, I’d expected to hear from Hester Lou first. She had dropped us an e-mail after she left the restaurant the other night to reassure us that she was thrilled we’d met and that she wanted to pursue a familial relationship. That fact that she had a wife, too, had created an instant bond between us. But Daniel? He’d seemed standoffish and taciturn, and not at all the sort who would suddenly go all touchy-feely over us.
“Well, then. I suppose we should all be here.” I raised one eyebrow.
“I know—odd, isn’t it?” Camille moved to the counter, where she poured herself a cup of risha-berry tea. “I guess we’ll just have to wait to see what he wants, but I have the feeling that he’s got something up his sleeve. I know the man is hiding something, though I don’t get any negative feelings off of him.”
“That’s good, at least.”
