Black Dagger Brotherhood 11 - Lover at Last (145 page)

“Oh, yes, there’ve been”—Layla looked away, a strange expression tightening her features

—“quite a number of them.”

Qhuinn frowned. “Nobody weird, though, right?”

He couldn’t imagine that anyone in the house would be anything other than supportive, but he had

to ask.

“No…not weird.”

“What.” As Layla just fingered the cover of the magazine in her lap, some brunette, bubble-

headed, blank-eyed bimbo’s face distorted and went back to normal, distorted and went back to

normal. “Layla. Tell me.”

So he could go lay down some motherfuckin’ boundaries if he had to.

Layla pushed her hair back. “You’re going to think I’m crazy…or, I don’t know.”

He went over and sat down next to her. “Okay, look. I don’t know how to say this right so I’m just

going to get the words out. You and I? We’re going to be facing a lot of…you know, personal shit in connection with…” Oh, God, he really hoped she kept the pregnancy. “We might as well start being

fully honest with each other now. Whatever it is? I won’t judge. After all the crap I’ve done in my own life? I ain’t judging no one over nothing.”

Layla took a deep breath. “All right…well, Payne came and saw me last night.”

He frowned again. “And.”

“Well, she said she might be able to do something for the pregnancy. She wasn’t sure whether it

would work, but she didn’t think it would hurt me.”

Qhuinn’s chest tightened up, a stab of fear making his heart pound. V and Payne had things about

them that were not of this world. And that was cool. But not around his young—for fuck’s sake, V’s

hand was a straight-up killer….

“She took her hand and laid it on my belly, right where the young is….”

A sensation like Qhuinn’s inner toilet had flushed all the blood out of his head hit hard. “Oh, God

—”

“No, no.” She reached for him. “It wasn’t bad. It felt…good, actually. I was…bathed in this light

—it flowed through me, strengthening me. Healing me. It focused on my abdomen, but it went so much

further than that. Afterward, I was so worried about her, though. She collapsed on the floor next to the bed….” Layla motioned downward, to the floor. “But then I lost consciousness. I must have slept for a long time. When I finally woke up? That was when I felt…different. At first, I assumed it was

because the miscarriage had stopped because it was…over. I ran out and found Blay, and he took me

down to the clinic. That’s when you came and Doc Jane told us that…” Layla’s elegant hand touched

her lower abdomen, and then lingered there. “That was when she told us that our young is still with us

—”

Her voice broke at that point, and she blinked quickly. “So you see, I think she saved our

pregnancy.”

After a long moment of shock, Qhuinn whispered, “Oh…shit.”

Back in the parking lot of the restaurant, Assail loomed over the hood of his burglar’s Audi, standing fully in the glare of the headlights.

Much as he’d done the night before, he locked eyes with her by instinct rather than by sight.

And as he stood in the cold, he was hot from his temper, and so much else: As that sack of

excrement on two legs had escorted her to her car, and had the insanity to kiss her, Assail had been confronted anew by two choices: Track the man into the night and follow through on all that throat

tearing, or wait until the human left, and…

Something deep inside of him had made up his mind: He had been incapable of leaving her.

His burglar put down her window, and the scent of her arousal made him hard.

It also made him smile. It was the first time all night he’d caught a whiff of it—and that cooled his temper more than anything else could have.

Well, except perhaps skinning that man alive.

“What do you want,” she snarled.

Oh, wasn’t that the question.

He moved around to her side of the car. “Did you enjoy yourself?”

“Excuse me?”

“I believe you heard the question.”

She threw open the driver’s side door and jumped out. “How
dare
you expect
any
explanation from me about
anything
—”

He cranked his weight forward on his hips, leaning in toward her. “May I remind you that you

invaded my privacy first—”

“I didn’t jump in front of your car and—”

“Did you like what you saw last night?” That clammed her up. And as the silence persisted, he

smiled a little. “So you admit you were watching.”

“You goddamn
knew
I was,” she spat.

“So, answer the question. Did you like what you saw,” he said in a voice that was husky even to

his own ears.

Oh, yes, he thought as he inhaled deeply. She did.

“Never mind,” he purred. “You don’t need to put it in words. I already know your answer—”

She slapped him so fast and so hard, his head actually kicked back on his spine.

His first instinct was to bare his fangs and bite her, to punish her, to tantalize himself—because

there was no better spice to pleasure than a little pain. Or a lot of it.

He righted his head and lowered his lids. “That felt good. Do you want to do it again?”

As another bloom emanated from her, he laughed down deep in his chest, and thought, yes, indeed,

this reaction from her had just ensured that that human man was going to keep living. Or at least die by the hands of another.

She wanted himself. And no other.

Assail eased even closer, until his lips were right next to her ear. “What did you do when you got

home? Or couldn’t you wait that long.”

She took a deliberate step back. “You want to know? Fine. I changed the cat litter, made myself

two scrambled eggs and a piece of cinnamon toast, and then I put myself to bed.”

He took a deliberate step forward. “What did you do when you were in between the sheets?”

As that scent of hers flared once again, he put his mouth back where it had been…close, oh, so

close. “I think I know what you did. But I want you to tell me.”

“Screw you—”

“Did you think of what you saw?” As a gust of wind blew some of her hair into her eyes, he

tucked the strands back. “Did you imagine it was you I was fucking?”

Her breath began to pump in her chest, and—dearest Virgin in the Fade—that made him want to

take her. “How long did you stay?” he breathed. “Until the female finished…or until I did?”

Her hands punched him away. “Fuck off.”

In a quick shift, she shot around his body, jumped back into her car, and slammed the door.

He moved just as fast.

Surging in through the open window, he turned her head and kissed her hard, his mouth taking

over, the drive to wipe clean any trace of that human male making his sex pound.

She kissed him back.

With equal strength.

As his shoulders were too big to fit through the window, he wanted to claw through the steel. He

had to stay where he was, however, and that made him even more aggressive, his blood roaring in his veins, his body straining as his tongue entered her, his hand snaking behind her neck, burying into her hair.

She was slick and sweet and hot as hell.

To the point that he had to break off for a deep breath or run the risk of passing out.

As he separated them, he met her eyes. They were both heaving, and as her arousal thickened the

air, he wanted to be inside of her.

To mark her…

The sound of his phone going off was exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time: The ringing from

his coat seemed to snap her back to reality, her eyes flaring as they slid away, her hands locking on the steering wheel as if she were trying to ground herself.

She didn’t look at him as she put the window up, engaged the engine, and drove off.

Leaving Assail panting in the cold.

FIFTY-FIVE

Qhuinn left Layla’s room shortly thereafter, his shitkickers carrying him fast across the narrow

rug that ran down the corridor to the head of the stairs. As he kept going by Wrath’s study, he

was vaguely aware of someone calling his name, but he paid no attention.

At the far end of the hall of statues, past Z and Bella’s suite, the room where Payne and

Manny stayed had a closed door, but the sound of a television quietly murmured on the far side.

Qhuinn took a second to collect the pieces of his blown mind, and then knocked.

“Enter,” came the response.

As he stepped inside, the room was awash in a blue glow, the TV providing the light. Payne was

lying in the bed, her skin so pale it reflected the changing images projected onto it.

“Greetings,” she said in a slurred voice.

“Jesus…Christ…”

“No, I am afraid not.” She smiled. Or at least, half of her mouth did. “Pardon me if I do not get up to offer greetings.”

He shut the door softly. “What happened?”

Even though he sort of knew.

“Is she well?” Payne asked. “Is your female pregnant still?”

“The tests seem to indicate so.”

“Good. That pleases me.”

“Are you dying?” he blurted out. And then wanted to knee himself in his own ’nads.

She laughed roughly. “I do not believe so. I’m very weak, however.”

Qhuinn’s feet carried him across the carpet. “So…what happened?”

Payne struggled to push herself higher on her pillows, but then gave up. “I think I’m losing my

gift.” She groaned as she moved her legs under the duvet. “When I first came here, I was able to lay hands and heal with little or no after effects. Every time I do it, however, the effort appears to drag me down further. And what I endeavored with your female and your young was…”

“You nearly killed yourself,” he filled in.

She shrugged. “I woke up on the floor next to her bed. I dragged myself down here. Manny got me

out of bed earlier, and I did have some energy. Now, it seems to have flagged once more.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“I think I must needs go to my mother’s sanctuary.” This was said with total derision. “For a

recharge, as it were. It seems logical, as that may well have been the locus of my gift. I just need to get strong enough to make the trip, so to speak—well, that and gather the will to. I should much prefer to remain down here. The decision, however, appears to be making itself for me. One cannot

negotiate with one’s physical form, after a point.”

Yeah, he knew how that was.

“I can’t…” He dragged a hand through his hair. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“When she gives birth, then you may thank me. There is much unknown ahead that is still to be

crossed.”

Not anymore, he thought. His vision, the one on the door to the Fade, was once again on track to

coming true.

And this time it was going to stay that way.

Qhuinn withdrew one of the daggers from his chest and streaked the sharp blade across the inside

of his palm. As blood welled and started to drip, he offered himself to the female.

“
I hereby offer the oath of my
—” He stopped short. He didn’t have any bloodline to speak of, not with that disavowal in his background. “
I offer the oath of my honor to you and yours from now

until the final beat of my heart and the last breath in my lungs. Anything you shall call upon me for
shall be provided without question or hesitation
.”

On one level, it seemed ridiculous to put himself out like that to the daughter of a motherfucking

deity. Like Payne needed any help?

Payne’s dagger hand met his and latched on tight. “
I would rather have your honor than any

bloodline upon the earth.
”

As their eyes met, he had a thought that it was not male-to-female, but fighter-to-fighter, in spite of their sexes.

“I will never be able to thank you enough,” he said.

“Would that she makes it through. Both of them, that is.”

“I have the sense they will now. Thanks to you.”